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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap*.. Copyright No. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
























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TALKS 



THE WORD OF GOD. 



E. FAIRLEY CUNNINGHAM. 



Htcfymonb, Pa. : 

The Presbyterian Committee of Publication. 



i 



7>**& 




Copyrighted 

by 

J AS. K. HA ZEN, Secretary of Publication. 

1896. 



Printed by 

Whittet & Shepperson, 

Richmond, Va. 



The Library 
of Conoi 



TO THE 

TEACHERS AND SCHOLARS 

OF THE SECOND PEESBYTEEIAX CHURCH SUXD AY-SCHOOL 

OF SAYAXXAn, GEORGIA, 

TO AYHOM THEY WERE ORIGIXALLY ADDRESSED, 

this little book of talks 

IS MOST AFFECTIOXATELY DEDICATED 
BY THEIR SUPERIXTEXDEXT AXD ERIEXD, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



Some of God's best preachers are not in the 
pulpit. Here, written by a layman, is a volume 
full of the richest morsels of divine truth. It 
might be called, "Gospel Applied to the Life 
of Men and Women, and also Children"; for 
while it contains stroDg meat for the learned, 
it is simple enough for the young. It will be 
strange if this book shall not be popular, and, 
what is far better, useful — useful to the church 
and people of God, helping them to duty and 
to the love of God and man ; and when it falls 
into the hands of the unconverted, it must, 
under the influence of the Divine Spirit, tend 
to lead them to Christ. 

Mr. Cunningham, my dear friend and parish- 
ioner of former days, is to be congratulated on 
this his first venture into the field of authorship. 
It will bring him honor, and give glory to his 
Lord. May God's blessing accompany the 

book - ROBERT P. KERR. 

Richmond, Ya. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Mission of John the Baptist — Mark i.l- 11, __ 9 

A Sabbath in the Life of Jesus — Mark i. 21-34, 15 

Healing of the Leper — Mark i. 35-45, 20 

Forgiveness and Healing — Mark ii. 1-12, 26 

Parable of the Sower — Mark iv. 10-20, 32 

The Fierce Demoniac— Mark v. 1-20, 40 

The Timid Woman's Touch— Mark v. 25 34, __ _ 45 

The Teacher and the Twelve — Mark vi 1-13 __ 50 

Jesus the Messiah — Mark viii. 27; ix. 1, 54 

The Childlike Spirit— Mark ix 33-42, 58 

Christ's Love to the Young — Markx. 13-22, __ 64 

Blind Bartimeus — Mark x. 46-52, 71 

The Rejected Son— Mark xii. 1-12, 76 

The Two Great Commandments — Mark xii. 28-34, 80 
Destruction of the Temple Foretold — Mark 

xiii. 1-13, 84 

The Command to Watch — Mark xiii. 24-37, 87 

The Anointing at Bethany — Mark xiv. 1-9, 93 



8 Contents. 

PAGE. 

Jesus Befoke the Council — Mark xiv. 55-65, __ 97 

Jesus Crucified— Mark xv. 21-39, 103 

The Kingdom Divided — 1 Kings xii. 1-17, 111 

Idolatry in Israel — 1 Kings xii. 25-33, 116 

God's Care of Elijah — 1 Kings xvii. 1-16, 124 

Elijah and the Prophets of Baal— 1 Kings 

xviii. 25-39, 131 

Elijah at Horeb — 1 Kings xix., 139 

Ahab's Coyetousness — 1 Kings xxi. 1-16, 145 

The Ten Commandments — Exodus xx. 1-17, 150 



TALKS 

FROM 

THE WORD OF GOD. 



mission of 3ofyn tfye Baptist 

Mark i. 1-11. 

FEOM this word "mission" comes another 
word in our language, "missionary," which 
means " one who is sent " ; and the " mission " is 
that on which he is sent, or that which one is sent 
to do. Now, the mission of John the Baptist, or 
that for which he was sent, was simply to be 
" a voice " to tell about Jesus. 

We say nowadays that such and such an one 
has a mission. 

In the last century there was a good man 
whose name was John Howard. He took it 
into his heart to do what he could to reform 
the prisons and jails, so as to do away as far 
as he could with those abuses that rendered 
them such filthy places, and he labored hard 
to abolish the practices that subjected those 
that were confined in them, frequently, to 
2 9 



10 Talks from the 

inhuman treatment. To accomplish this he 
travelled not only all over his native land, but 
also over all Europe, visiting France, Germany, 
Spain, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Rus- 
sia, and even extending his journeys into seve- 
ral countries of Asia. He met with great suc- 
cess and effected wonderful reforms. And so 
we say it was his mission to help poor pris- 
oners. 

When there was war in the Crimea, and ever 
so many poor soldiers were wounded and dying, 
Florence Nightingale went among them and 
was like an angel of mercy to them. It was 
her mission to nurse and to cheer up and to 
help those poor soldiers. 

Years ago, in Scotland, a poor cobbler, John 
Pounds by name, would gather ragged children 
out of the streets into his little shop, and while 
he toiled away, driving pegs into the shoes, he 
would at the same time teach them their A B 
C's, and in this way educated five hundred of 
them. Not only so, but some painter or 
draughtsman having made a picture of it, it 
was seen by the famous Dr. Guthrie, who was 
through that instrumentality led to take such 
an interest in the schools that were formed in 
Scotland (if not to found them, in fact) for 
ragged children as he never would have known 
or felt otherwise. That was John Pounds' 



Word of God. 11 

mission. That was what God sent him into 
the world to do, and to inspire others to do. 

Gustave Dore was a genius in the matter of 
drawing and painting. By his pictures, thou- 
sands have been helped to understand better 
many things of the Bible. And that was his 
mission, to make these wonderful pictures. . 

And so we read in the Bible of a little girl 
whose people had a war with a great and 
powerful nation. This little girl was taken 
prisoner and carried far, far away from her 
home. She was made a little slave What 
could she do? Surely there was no mission 
for her, was there? Yes, there was, for her 
mistress was in great distress, owing to the 
sickness of her husband, the great commander- 
in-chief of the army, and a mighty man of 
valor. He had the leprosy, and none of the 
doctors of his country could cure him. And it 
was the mission of this little girl to whisper 
into the ears of her mistress of the prophet, in 
her land, of the great God whom she served, 
and how he could heal her master. And Naa- 
man went to Elijah and was cured of his lep- 
rosy. 

Now, then, what is your mission ? Why did 
God let you be born at all? Couldn't the 
world have got along just as well without you? 
Suppose you were to drop out of it to-morrow, 



12 Talks fkom the 

how much of it would miss you? Why, mil- 
lions would never know of it. Some even on 
the same street, maybe, wouldn't know about 
it. The sun would shine on just the same as 
ever, and the clouds would scud across the sky 
and the old earth roll along through space as 
if nothing had happened at all. Well, why, 
then, did God let you be born, and why did he 
let me be born? Because he had a mission 
for us. He sent us here to do something, and 
he sent us here to be something. 

John the Baptist said he was only "a 
voice," but ah! the voice told about Jesus. If 
a sign-board that is at the cross-roads could 
speak, it might say, "I'm only a piece of wood ; 
I cannot run, I cannot move, I'm nailed here ; 
I cannot talk." But it can show the traveller 
which road to take; it can quietly point the 
way to the great city, and it does so. 

So you may think, "I am nothing, I cannot 
do anything." Yes, you can. You can point 
others to Jesus. You can show somebody the 
way to heaven. And is not that your mission? 
What if you are plain, perhaps, or homely, or 
anything else ? The mission of ugly, black coal 
is to give light and comfort and warmth. And 
the disgusting-looking oyster shell has the 
grand mission often of holding safe and sound 
within its grasp the precious pearl. Don't fret 



Word of God. 13 

if your mission does not seem to be as great as 
some one else's. The mission of the great oak 
tree in the forest is to be cut down and made 
into planks to go into the side of a ship, or to 
form a part of a house. But the little violet 
cannot do anything like that. Its mission is 
simply to be sweet, and, perhaps, go into some 
sick room and refresh the eye, and so cheer a 
sufferer. And so your mission may be simply 
to live quietly and humbly for Jesus, and let 
the perfume of a pure life be breathed out by 
you for him. 

But what if you do not fulfil your mission ? 
Doubtless God's mission for you is that you 
shall shine for Jesus in this world, and speak 
for Jesus, and sing for Jesus, and show your- 
self at all times glad in Jesus, and stand up for 
Jesus, and be a faithful and willing servant of 
Jesus. Now, if you do not perform your mis- 
sion — -what ? Turn to the eleventh chapter of 
Mark and the twelfth verse, and you will read 
of an incident in the life of Jesus which was on 
this wise: "And on the morrow, when they 
were come from Bethany, he was hungry : and 
seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he 
came, if haply he might find anything thereon : 
and wdien he came to it, he found nothing but 
leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And 
Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat 



14 Talks from the Word of God. 

fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disci- 
ples heard it." "And in the morning, as they 
passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from 
the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance 
saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree 
which thou cursedst is withered away." 

The mission of the fig tree was to bear figs, 
but it didn't do it. And the fig tree was cursed. 
And so if you do not perform your mission and 
live for God ! 



(X Sabbatbt in tfye iife of 3^us. 

Mark i. 21-34. 

AS his (Jesus') custom was, he went into the 
synagogue on the Sabbath." Is it the 
same with you and me, or, in other words, is it 
our custom? Habits are what make things 
easy, so some one has said. It is easy for 
every one to form habits, and as easy to form 
good habits as bad ones, so let us see to it that 
these are the only ones, by the grace of God, 
that we will form. Imitate the example, the 
custom, of Jesus to honor the Sabbath. 

In Scotland an old minister, whose hymns 
are sung round the world, and who is beloved 
by thousands of believers in Jesus who have 
never seen him, honored God's day once so as 
to make it memorable for a long time to come 
to many of his fellow-countrymen. He lived 
in the great city of Glasgow, and had been in- 
vited to preach one Sunday at a small place 
called Govan, about four miles distant. Not 
far from where the good old man lived there 
was a large number of artisans, workmen em- 
ployed in the immense ship-yards of that neigh- 
borhood, who, somehow, heard of the Doctor's 
15 



16 Talks from the 

(Dr. Andrew Bonar) engagement to preach, 
and at once commenced to make wagers about 
it. Some said he would violate the Sabbath 
by taking the ferry-boat, which would make" 
the trip only a mile distant, while others 
thought that, old man though he was, he would 
walk the whole distance of four miles rather 
than break the Sabbath. To settle the matter 
they appointed a committee of two to watch 
him and see. Little did the Doctor think 
when he came down his front steps that Sun- 
day morning that four sharp eyes were watch- 
ing him keenly to observe what he would do. 
The men were not left long in doubt about it, 
for they saw the old hero turn at once to the 
right and unhesitatingly and cheerfully start 
out on his long trudge of four miles to Govan. 
And when the news was carried back to the 
twenty thousand workmen who were waiting 
to hear, they could not restrain themselves. 
They frantically threw their caps up into the 
air and made the welkin ring again with cheers 
for Dr. Bonar. It was a spontaneous and 
hearty expression of their admiration for his 
adherence to principle. 

We ought especially to honor God's day by 
coming to his house. If the man with the un- 
clean spirit had not been in the synagogue that 
day Jesus was there, he might have never been 



Word of God. 17 

healed. He might have missed the blessing. 
And how much people miss now by keeping 
away from church, where the especial presence 
of Jesus is! "As Ms custom was, he went into 
the synagogue on the Sabbath day." We 
know that was so from what we read of him in 
other places. We remember how, when he 
was only twelve years old, he was in the tem- 
ple, the great big synagogue. And often in 
the Scriptures we read about his going into the 
synagogue on the Sabbath. 

It is a comfort and a help to think that some 
things which Jesus did we can do. Did you 
ever think of that, how wonderful it is? He 
was always in his place in God's house on the 
Sabbath, and joined earnestly in the worship. 
And can't you do that? and can't I, too ? 

Not only so, but he visited the sick on Sun- 
days. He went to see Peter's wife's mother, 
who lay sick of a fever, and he healed her and 
lifted her up. And cannot you and I visit some 
poor sick one on Sunday ? We can keep the 
day as unto the Lord, and either read the Bible 
to some aged and maybe blind and feeble 
child of God, or else visit some poor children, 
perhaps in a hospital, take them flowers and 
cheer them up, and show them ever so many 
little kindnesses on our Lord's blessed day, and 
it will not be in vain and will not go unrewarded. 
3 



18 Talks from the 

In Australia some of the natives are said to 
have a weapon that is called a boomerang, which, 
when thrown, will make a wide circle through 
the air, returning into the hand that propelled 
it, if it does not perchance strike what is aimed 
at. And so, whenever we do good in our Lord's 
n i n e, the blessing we seek to carry to others 
swings around back into our own hearts with 
all force and power, and rewards us with great 
peace and joy. 

A poor man came to the city not long ago 
and brought his family with him. His work 
was that of fresco painting. For a time all 
went well, for there was plenty to do. He 
furnished his house as well as he could afford 
to do, but had no ready money, and was com- 
pelled to pay for it in installments, at so much 
a month. But before he had paid very many 
months on it his work gave out. There was 
nothing in his line that he could hear of in all 
the city. He could find no employment. He 
was reduced to the greatest distress, and to 
make matters worse his little boy became most 
seriously sick. What do you suppose the peo- 
ple who sold him the furniture now did ? They 
came and they took back every piece of their 
furniture, even to the very bed that the poor 
sick boy lay upon. Some of the King's Daugh- 
ters, happening to come that way, heard of the 



Wobd of God. 19 

poor family's misfortunes, and calling on them 
to see if they could not afford them some relief, 
imagine their horror and their indignation at 
beholding the poor child on the floor, on a 
pallet of straw, in a room almost entirely bare 
of furniture. They succeeded in having him 
taken to the hospital, where he could receive 
proper comforts and have the attention of 
skilled physicians, and did all that was in their 
power, of course, to help the family. 

This is only one instance of perhaps thou- 
sands of a similar kind that are occurring con- ' 
stantly, doubtless, in all the large cities of our 
land. And our hospitals are filled with such 
suffering children. 

How many of the bright, healthy, clear-eyed 
and rosy-cheeked, plump, sturdy scholars in our 
Sunday-schools ever think of them, and how 
many ever think to visit them ? Do you ? 

What a blessed thing to imitate Jesus in the 
way he spent Sundays. "As his custom was, 
he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath 
day," and we have seen how he also visited the 
sick, and, as we do so, we may look forward to 
the time when he will say to us: "Inasmuch 
as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 



pealing of tfye £epet\ 

Maek i. 35-45. 

TOU and I have never seen a leper in this 
country where we live, and if all that the 
books say of them is true we ought to be very 
thankful that we have not. A leper must be a 
hideous sight. Suppose we could be lifted up 
and suddenly dropped down in Palestine near 
a group of them. We would notice some of 
them without eyes, without ears, without nose, 
without hair. The leprosy eats into their 
bodies slowly, gradually, surely. The fingers 
drop off joint by joint; they hold up to travel- 
lers often handless arms. The palate is eaten 
away, too, by the disease, so they cannot speak, 
but make unearthly, blood-curdling sounds. 
Beginning from without, the leprosy steadily 
eats inward, first the skin and tissues, then the 
joints and bones, then into the very marrow, then 
into the heart and lungs and other parts of the 
body, until at last the end comes, and the suf- 
ferings of the leper cease at last at death. But 
in his life they say he is a disgusting, revolting, 
sickening, and loathsome, most pitiable spec- 
tacle, loathsome in his own sight as well as in 
20 



Talks from the Word of God. 21 

the sight of others. He is not allowed to go 
where others live, but is compelled to stay off 
by himself. Food is brought to a certain place 
for him and left, and then when those who 
have brought it for him have gone away the f 
leper comes near and gets what has thus been 
brought for him. If any should accidentally 
come near him without noticing him he is 
obliged to give them warning by crying out, 
"Unclean, unclean." An awful thing it must 
be to be a leper. 

But did you ever think of it, how much worse 
than all that is the leprosy of sin? Just as 
leprosy affects every part of a man's body, so 
sin affects every part of you — your mind, your 
eyes, your hearing, your lips, your heart, your 
whole self, yonr whole life, so you love to think 
the things which you know are sin, you love to 
look at the things which you know are sin, and 
to speak the things that are sin, and hear the 
things that are sin, and give a home in your 
heart to what you know is sin. And as for 
being loathsome, why, in the sight of the angels, 
you must be! And in God's sight! Why, the 
Bible says that even the "heavens are not 
clean in his sight, and he charges the angels 
with folly." What must you be then ? Doubt- 
less in your own sight you are loathsome at 
times, and you would most certainly be in the 



•22 Talks from the 

sight of others if they could see you and know 
you as you know yourself. 

Did you ever notice, down by the edge of a 
river or pond or stream, if you should lift up a 
large, round, flat stone, such as are often seen 
in such places, right away you behold worms 
and other disgusting, slimy, creeping objects 
crawling away as if from the light and trying to 
get back into their holes in the ground? So if 
the stone or covering could be lifted from your 
heart, and we could see right in, how many 
slimy, loathsome, creeping and disgusting pas- 
sions and sins w r ould meet our gaze! and how 
they would try their best to hurry away out of 
sight and hide themselves in the dark! Well, 
we may not be able to see these things in your 
heart, but God sees all the leprosy there, for 
all things are "naked and open unto the eyes 
of him with whom we have to do." 

The lepers could not do anything to heal 
themselves, and neither can you. " Can the 
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his 
spots ? then may ye also do good, that are ac- 
customed to do evil." "For though thou wash 
thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet 
thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the 
Lord God." 

There was only one thing for the leper, all 
tainted with his leprosy, to expect, and that 



Word of God. 23 

was that he must die. So must you, too, sin- 
ner, die for your sins, for so the holy word of 
God declares, "the soul that sinneth, it shall 

die," unless . What ! is there an " unless " ? 

Yes, "unless" you come to Jesus. The leper 
came and he was healed. He did not stop and 
try to scrape away some of the scales of his 
leprosy and fix himself up a little. No! but he 
came just as he was. And so must the sinner 
come. Some foolishly think that if they leave 
off this evil habit and stop such and another 
sinful practice they are curing themselves of 
their leprosy of sin. But that is as though one 
were to lop off the branches of a tree and leave 
the trunk standing, or cut the tree down to the 
ground while the roots remained beneath. All 
that does not touch the heart, the "heart that 
is deceitful above all things and desperately 
wicked." 

Only Jesus can cleanse the heart of the fear- 
ful virus or poison of sin. He has the power. 
As easily as a child sponges out the figures on 
his slate, so he blots out all your sins; only 
trust him ! As easily as you can turn your 
hand, so he can change your heart and make 
you a new creature ; only trust him ! As easily 
as the potter can take the clay and fashion it 
and mould it to his will, making a beautiful 
vase or cup or other vessel, so Jesus can 



24 Talks from the 

mould and fashion your heart and your life 
anew; only trust him! Just as easily as the 
judge can say to the prisoner, "go," — indeed 
much more easily, for oftentimes a judge is 
unable to say that — much more easily will 
Jesus say to you, "thy sins which are many 
are forgiven thee," "go, and sin no more." 
Only trust him ! 

Jesus touched the leper that came to him. 
Think of that, for no one else would have done 
it. Suppose St. Andrew had said to St. Peter, 
" Peter, you touch that leper." Do you imagine 
for one moment that he would have done so? 
Can we not almost hear him saying, as he 
did on another occasion: "What, I? I have 
never eaten anything that is common or un- 
clean, and never have, and never would think 
of touching an unclean leper." And do you 
suppose that Thomas would have touched him, 
or James, or John? No, not they ! But Jesus 
did ; his heart is so pitiful. 

A Mr. Marsh relates the following story: 
"Some years ago a sweep stole the son of 
some wealthy parents, and trained him to go 
up chimneys to clean them. One day the lad 
went up a chimney, and went out at the top on 
to the roof of the house. After resting a little, 
he went down, as he thought, the same chim- 
ney, but it was the wrong one, and he landed 



Word of God. 25 

in a finely-furnished room where a lady was 
sitting. On the boy's temple was a birth- 
mark, which the lady believed to be the same 
mark which her long-lost son had. Eecogniz- 
ing it at once, she flung her arms round his 
neck, crying over and smothering him with 
kisses — just as he was!" That is exactly what 
God the loving Father in Christ wants to do to 
you, my young friend and fellow- sinner. No 
matter how much you are covered with the 
soot of sin, no matter how leprous, he will ac- 
cept you and will cleanse you and will wash 
you, so that you will be whiter than snow, if 
you will just simply trust him. 

And may his Holy Spirit, even now, help you 
to do so. 



5org>tt>eness anb pealing. 

Maek ii. 1-12. 

C— C— c. 

THEEE are three lessons we ought to learn 
from the narrative of the man with the 
palsy who was healed by Jesus, and we can 
head them under three C's. The first C is, 
Come to Jesus. We should come to him with 
our sorrows and with our troubles and our 
trials and temptations and whatever may be 
our burden. " Cast thy burden upon the Lord, 
and he shall sustain thee." That was what the 
palsied man did, and he proved the promise 
true. But if we should come to Jesus with our 
sorrows, most of a]l should we come to him 
with our sins. "But, oh!" say some, "this 
man did not come; his four friends brought 
him." 

Well, if you cannot come by yourself, and if 
you do not just know how to come to Jesus, 
get your friends to help you to come, like the 
man with the palsy did. Years ago a young 
man in this city was walking the streets in 
great distress of mind. He was convicted of 
sin. He knew he was a sinner. His sorrow 
26 



Talks fkom the Word of God. 27 

for his sins was most deep and most intense. 
He felt that he was certainly lost. And he did 
not know which way to turn nor where to go to 
get relief. And as he thus walked along, one 
of the ministers who knew him well met him 
and greeted him in his usual friendly way and 
said to him, ""Why, how do you do?" " Oh!" 
replied the young man, "my dear friend, I am 
lost, I am lost." 

"Why, don't you know," responded the good 
pastor, "that the Son of man came to seek and 
to save the lost? " That was all he said, and he 
went on. But the young man thought and 
said to himself, "That's so, of course. He 
came to seek and to save the lost ! Why ! 
That means me! Glory to God!" And he 
trusted there and then. And he was saved 
then and there. That was how the minister 
helped the young man to come to Jesus. 

And couldn't your friends help you, too? 
Have you ever asked their help? How many 
of the thousands upon thousands of children 
and young people in the Sunday-schools 
throughout the land ever think, or ever want 
to ask their teachers, or ask their superintend- 
ents, or ask their pastors, to help them to 
come to Jesus? 

Suppose a number of people were in a beau- 
tiful garden that was filled with rare and lovely 



28 Talks from the 

flowers of sweetest perfume, and yet all the 
time they were enjoying their fragrance they 
did not know or could not see that the scent 
of these flowers was deadly poisonous. Would 
not that be sad ? But that is just how it is in 
this world. You are so taken up with its 
pleasures and with its sweets and pleasant sur- 
roundings that you forget that you are inhaling 
the deadly perfumes of sin, drinking in iniquity 
every moment like water, in fact, dying through 
sin, and, as the Bible says, " condemned 
already." The people in the garden would not 
feel that they were in any danger, and yet they 
would be in danger all the time. And so, per- 
haps, with you. You may not truly realize 
your awful danger. But because one does not 
see his danger it does not follow that there is 
not any. Men ofttimes on expeditions into the 
Arctic regions have become drowsy and in- 
clined to sleep out in the open air, and are 
almost completely overcome by their drowsi- 
ness. Their companions have to stir them up, 
shove them along, make them walk and not let 
them sleep, because, although they do not feel 
any danger and cannot see any, only being de- 
lightfully drowsy and feeling comfortable, as 
we do when sleep comes on us, those who have 
been up in those cold regions know that should 
any one yield to this drowsiness and sink down 



Woed of God. 29 

into the snow and sleep, it would be to never 
wake again, for it would result in certain death. 
And it is the same with opium. A physician 
gave a patient a large dose of opium by mis- 
take once, and finding it out in the nick of time 
rushed back and saw that the man was becom- 
ing alarmingly drowsy. He knew that if he 
slept he would die. And so the doctor took 
him by the arm and compelled him to walk. 
They walked, walked, walked all night long 
until both of them were nearly dead with ex- 
haustion, but he succeeded in walking the effects 
of the drug off. 

Now in both cases neither one felt there was 
any danger. But the danger was most real, 
nevertheless. 

So with a sinner. Feeling has nothing to 
do with it. He may feel or he may not feel 
that he is in danger, but that does not affect 
the fact. God says in his most holy word that 
he is in danger and is in a most desperate 
plight : " From the crown of the head to the 
sole of the feet nothing but wounds and bruises 
and putrefying sores." "Dead in trespasses 
and sins," as the man with the palsy was dead 
practically as to the use of his body. 

So you need to come to Jesus. Come like 
the palsied man came, just as you are. Would 
you have sure proof that you are sick with this 



30 Talks from the 

awful palsy of sin? Suppose we were to take 
a waiter of tempting food with highly seasoned 
and dainty viands, and luscious fruits and 
everything that could tempt the appetite, and 
carry it to the bedside of one or two sick per- 
sons in a hospital. They would turn away 
from it all in disgust. Why ? Simply because 
they were sick. And why do you turn away 
from holy things and loathe 'the Bible and 
spurn the prayer- meeting, and evince no relish 
for what is spiritual? Is it not because your 
soul is sick? And is there any one who can 
heal you of your sickness but Jesus only? 
" There is none other name given under heaven 
whereby we must be saved." 

You must come to him because he is the 
only one who is able to deliver you out of your 
great danger, and he is the only physician " who 
forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all 
thy diseases." 

Crush your way to him (that is the second 
C). You may not have crowds of people in 
the way like the sick man had, but if there are 
crowds of other things, fears, doubts, misgiv- 
ings, unbelief, obstacles that Satan puts in the 
way, or whatever they may be, crush through 
them. Let nothing hinder you, not even stone 
walls nor the roofs of houses. The four men 
had to break through the roof to get their 



Wokd of God. 31 

friend to Jesus, but they got him there. And 
you will be able also to crush } 7 our way through 
everything to Jesus if you are determined like 
they were. No matter what friends think or 
folks say, it is a question of life or death to you. 
You must come to Jesus if you would live. If 
the man with the palsy had stayed away he 
would have died of his palsy. If you stay 
away from Jesus you will die in your sins. To 
come to him is to live. To stay away is de- 
spair and darkness and doom and death. 

The third C is, to Carry your friends to 
Jesus in the arms of faith, in prayer, if you 
cannot carry them in any other way. But if 
the man with the palsy was surely glad he was 
healed, his friends who carried him must have 
been also glad. Next to the joy of coming to 
Jesus one's self there is no joy so great, so 
broad, so high, so deep as that of bringing 
somebody else to him to obtain his great sal- 
vation. 

COME to Jesus. 

CRUSH through everything to him. 

CARRY your friends to him. 



parable of tfye Soir>ct\ 

Maek iv. 10-20. 

THE GROUND is THE HEART. 

Wayside Inattentive. 

Stony Insincere. 

Thorny Immovable. 

G ° 0d is "yours H<>NEST ? 

IN this parable there is the sower, the seed, 
and the soil. Jesus is the sower, his words 
are the seed, and our hearts the soil. Let us 
notice a few things about the last : 

1. When the seed was sown on wayside 
ground the birds of the air came swift flying 
and gathered it up. Now, who are the way- 
side hearers? They are inattentive ones. To 
use an old phrase, whatever is said goes in at 
one ear and out at the other. A laugh, a look 
at something funny, a nudge at the elbow, some- 
thing whispered in your ear, or something said 
as you go out of the school, or out of the church, 
draws away your mind from the holy truth that 
has just been spoken. The seed is gone. Satan, 
by these things, snatches it away immediately. 
And sometimes he uses only a thought to do it, 
32 



Talks fkom the Wokd of God. 33 

and our evil thoughts are his swift-flying birds 
of the air which he sends forth to snatch away 
the seed out of our hearts. Oh! how solemn 
the words of Jesus : " He that hath ears to hear, 
let him hear." A dying man once sent for his 
pastor to come and see him, and when he came 
said to him: "I have never heard a sermon." 
His pastor looked at him in amazement. He 
had been coming to his church for over twenty 
years, sitting in one of the front pews nearest 
the pulpit. So the minister turned to those 
near by and said something about the poor man 
being in a delirium. But he was overheard by 
the sick man, who replied : " Oh, no ! I am not 
delirious, but it was my custom every Sunday, 
as soon as the text was given out, to think over 
the last week's business and to make plans and 
preparations for the week's business ahead, so 
that I never heard anything that was said by 
you." A wayside hearer! "He that hath ears 
to hear, let him hear." 

2. The stony-ground hearer, Jesus says, is 
the one who hears the word and immediately 
receives it with gladness, but has no root in 
himself and so endures for a time, but when per- 
secution comes for the word's sake is offended. 
He is an insincere hearer. He makes up his 
mind, maybe while in school, that he will give 
his heart to Christ, and forms all sorts of good 
5 



34 Talks from the 

resolutions ; but if any one comes up and says 
to him: "Say, you are not going to join the 
church, are you?" he will immediately reply, 
"Why, no! I never had any idea of such a 
thing." He cannot stand the persecution for 
the word's sake. He is insincere. And are 
you such a hearer as that? 

3. And who are the thorny-ground hearers? 
They are those who allow the cares or the 
pleasures of this life to choke the good seed 
that has been sown in their hearts. "A sad 
story is related of a young girl who was beauti- 
ful, thoughtful, gentle, anxious to relieve all 
suffering and want, and to serve her God faith- 
fully. She became married to a wealthy gentle- 
man, who carried her to New York, where they 
plunged into a whirl of gaiety. She became 
noted as a beauty. Her witty sayings flew 
from mouth to mouth. The papers delighted 
to describe her fashionable parties, her dresses, 
and her handsome equipages. She and her 
husband went from New York to Newport, and 
passed their time between London and Paris. 
She was the envy of all the young girls, as they 
looked up to her as the foremost leader of so- 
ciety. After several years of giddy society life, 
she was returning from California to New 
York when a dreadful accident happened to 
the train she was on, and she was fatally in- 



Word of God. 35 

jured. She was carried into the little wayside 
station, and there attended by a good old 
physician, the only one in the neighborhood. 
She died. The old Doctor, telling about it, 
says it was the most awful experience he ever 
went through. She was not suffering any pain, 
as she was injured internally, and her only con- 
sciousness of being hurt was that she was 
unable to move. The good Doctor was obliged 
to inform her that she had only an hour to live. 
She wouldn't believe him. 'I must go home,' 
she imperatively said, ' to New York.' ' Madame, 
it is impossible, if you are moved it will 
shorten the time you have to live.' She was 
lying on the floor. The brakemen had rolled 
their coats up to make a pillow for her. She 
looked around at the little dingy station with 
its stove, all tobacco stained, in its midst. ' I 
have but an hour, you tell me.' 'Not more.' 
'And this is all that is left me; it is not much, 
Doctor,' with a half- smile. After a long pause, 
during which she lay quite quiet, she said, ' To 
think of all I might have done with my money 
and time. God wanted me to help the poor 
and the sick ; it's too late now. I have only an 
hour.' She struggled up wildly, 'Why, Doctor, 
I did nothing, nothing, but lead the fashion. 
Great God! The fashion! Now I've only an 
hour — an hour!' JJut she had not even that. 



36 Talks from the 

Her exertion to rise proved fatal to her, and 
she dropped back, instantly, dead." What a 
fearful illustration of the thorny-ground hearer! 
And how fatally can the pleasures of this world 
choke the good seed of life! 

4. But besides the wayside ground, and the 
stony ground, and the thorny ground, there 
was the good ground. And the good ground, 
we are told, represents those who receive the 
word into good and honest hearts and bring 
forth fruit in their lives. 

Is your heart such an honest heart? Or is 
it so choked with pleasures and other things 
that nothing affects it because it is immovable t 
and the gospel seed is choked in it ? You 
know there are some things "that you are not 
responsible for. You are not responsible for 
having been born in the United States, and not 
in Persia. You are not responsible for the 
color of your hair, or eyes, the length of your 
arms, or the tone of your voice. But you are 
responsible for the way you receive the word of 
life. You are responsible if you do not receive 
it into a good and honest heart. 

Did you ever think of the life that is in a 
seed? Suppose you plant a diamond. Will 
it grow? Or one of your beautiful cornelian 
marbles, or shells from the beach, or even a 
ruby. Will any of these grow if you plant 



Wokd of God. 37 

them ? Why, no, you say. Of course not. 
Well, why does one of these little hard, round, 
or oblong things we call a seed grow ? Why, 
because there is life in it. It is said that in 
one of the cases or coffins in which an old 
mummy was placed that was brought from 
Egypt to England or the United States a seed 
was found. Probably that seed had been lying 
there thousands upon thousands of years. And 
some one took it and planted it; and lo and 
behold the seed grew. Why? Why, because 
a seed has such singular vitality in it. There 
is life in it. 

Now, God's word is the seed. There is life 
in it, too. Only you need to receive it into your 
heart, which is the ground, and give it a chance 
to grow there. 

I was visiting a hospital one Sunday after- 
noon, when the matron asked me to come into 
the female ward and see a poor woman who 
wanted some one to talk to her. Now, it so 
happened that I didn't feel like talking, was in 
no humor for it, and had, in fact, a most fearful 
case of the blues. What could I say to the 
poor woman? I thought it would be a shame 
for such a sinner as I was to try to talk to any 
one about salvation. But I was pressed and 
urged and entreated by the matron to at least 
go in and see her. I did so. I had nothing 



38 Talks fkom the 

to say, and was wondering, after the introduc- 
tion, how to get out of the very awkward situa- 
tion, when she made some remark about being 
a sinner. Instantly I quoted the verse, " Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 
And then I commenced to sow other seed: 
"He came to call not the righteous, but sin- 
ners to repentance ; " " The Son of man is come 
to seek and to save that which was lost;" 
"Herein is love, not that we loved God but 
that he loved us and gave his Son to be the 
propitiation for our sins;" "Greater love hath 
no man than this, that he lay down his life for 
his friends;" "God commendeth his love to 
us in that when we were yet sinners Christ 
died for us;" and ever so many others that I 
cannot now recall to mind. Why, in a few 
minutes the poor woman burst into tears, cry- 
ing and sobbing as if her heart would break. 
Note this, that I had not said a single word 
of my own, nothing but the pure word of 
God. But she received it into an honest 
heart. The seed fell on good ground. It 
burst, it sprouted, it grew, it brought forth 
fruit, the tender and beautiful fruit of re- 
pentance unto salvation, not to be repented of. 
Doubtless every farmer looks forward, after 
he has planted his seed, to the time of harvest. 
And at the harvest time he reaps sometimes 



Word of God. 39 

thirty-fold, sometimes sixty, sometimes an hun- 
dred-fold. 

At the end of the world, when the Master 
comes to see how the seed has grown in your 
heart, how will it be then? What will he 
reap? What will the harvest be? Will he 
reap thirty-fold, or will he reap sixty-fold, or 
will he reap an hundred-fold ? 

May God grant to you now that you may be 
" born, not of corruptible seed, but of incor- 
ruptible, by the word of God which liveth and 
abicleth forever." 



£Lfye fierce demoniac 

BIakk v. 1-20. 

POWER 

OF 
SATAN. 

DID you ever stop to think what power 
Satan has? He had power to deceive 
Adam and Eve, he had power over poor Job to 
afflict his body with boils, he had power over 
King Saul, and in the New Testament we read 
that the reason why Judas acted as he did was 
because Satan entered into his heart. He had 
power over the bodies of men, and he had 
power over the hearts of men. St. Peter also 
asked this question of Ananias, " Why hath 
Satan entered into thy heart?" But worse 
than this, Satan has power over the minds of 
men. 

You know a king can order a man to go 
fight for him. He has power over a man's 
body, but he has no power to make his mind 
think like his own mind thinks. My country 
has power over my body, but it has not any 
power over my mind. Not long since a man 
came into my office and handed me a piece of 
40 



Talks fkom the "Word of God. 41 

paper. That paper said that on a certain day 
I must appear at a certain place to act as a 
grand juror for the United States, and if I 
did not appear on that day I would be punished 
by fine or by imprisonment. At the same time 
I got that paper a number of other men got a 
similar summons. Well, we all had to go. All 
the United States' army was at the back of that 
little piece of paper to make us go. But all 
the United States' army could not do a thing 
with my thoughts on that day. It had no 
power at all over my mind. I could let my 
mind run to the ends of the universe, or go 
down to the depths of the sea, and they could not 
do anything. It had power over my body, but 
not over my mind. But Satan has power over 
the mind. The Bible says "he has blinded 
the minds of them that believe not." 

Satan blinds men's minds to-day. He 
makes men think that the chief end of life is 
to make money instead of to serve God. He 
makes men think they have plenty of time, till 
suddenly death overtakes them. He has his 
evil spirits always at work. And he has power, 
alas! over little children. I was in a luxurious 
home, not long since, belonging to a wealthy 
family. Talking with the mother of a large 
family of children, she told me she was in great 
distress about one of her little boys. He was 



42 Talks from the 

a great liar. Nothing could make him tell the 
truth. They had whipped him, they had talked 
to him, the j had done everything, but he was 
most terribly and fearfully untruthful, and his 
lies were something dreadful. She was in the 
greatest sorrow about it, and in her anguish 
she declared that she would sooner have her 
little boy to die than to grow up to be such a 
fearful liar. 

Now see wdiat power Satan has over that 
little boy to make him lie as he does. And 
that is only one case of thousands of cases. 
He has power over other children. And he 
possesses other children, also by hate, and envy 
and pride and jealousy, and by that power to 
make them cruel and selfish, and even unclean 
and vile — like the poor demoniac of Gadara 
possessed of an unclean spirit. But strong as 
Satan is, there is one who is stronger. Great 
as Satan's power is, there is one who has 
greater power. There is one who is mightier 
far than Satan is, and that blessed one is 
Jesus. Jesus has all power. " All power," he 
says, "is given unto me in heaven and in earth." 

Jesus broke the demoniac's chains by which 
Satan had bound him. He overthrew the 
power of Satan and cast the legion of evil 
spirits out, and gave the poor man back his 
peace and rest and home and friends. When 



Word of God. 43 

the people of the city came out to see the nian, 
or rather the fierce demoniac who was pos- 
sessed of the legion of devils, they found him, 
lo! and behold! quiet and peaceful, "sitting, 
and clothed in his right mind." What a change ! 
See the power of Jesus! 

JESUS' 
Power 
over 
Satan. 

And the most wonderful thing of all was, that 
Jesus changed the demoniac into a preacher, 
for he said to him, " Go home, and tell thy 
friends how great things the Lord hath done 
for thee, and hath had compassion on thee." 
Now, if he could make a missionary out of a 
madman, cannot he do something for you, too ? 
Cannot he break Satan's power over you, also ? 
He says he "will bruise Satan under our feet 
shortly," and Satan shall be cast into the lake 
of fire in hell, prepared for the devil and his 
angels. 

Jesus had pity for the demoniac, he used his 
power to set him free and then he gave him his 
peace. And he has the same pity for you. 
He is just as willing to use his power for you, 
who are so governed by Satan that he makes 
you do ever so many things you ought not to 



44 Talks from the Word of God. 

do. You say you cannot help it. Something 
makes you say this and that wrong thing. Some- 
thing makes you do this and that evil deed. And 
the something, child, is Satan. You must come 
to Jesus, who can set you free, and trust to his 
power alone. And then he will cast Satan out 
as he did for the poor demoniac, and give you 
his eternal peace. 

JESUS' 
Pity Power Peace 

over 
Satan. 



Cbc CLtrrnb Woman's Coucfy 

Mask v. 25-34. 

THE TIMID WOMAN 

Came to } 

Confessed to [ JESUS. 

Comforted by ) J 

THE woman who "touched the hem of his 
garment" had tried elsewhere before she 
came to Jesus. She had gone to quite a num- 
ber of doctors who had done her no good. So 
men and women and children from that day 
down to this have been trying other physicians. 
Some go to Doctor Eeformation. They leave 
off this evil practice and stop that bad habit, 
they gulp down the lie they are about to utter, 
and give up their evil associates and try to 
make themselves better, but although all this 
is right enough and good, Doctor Eeformation 
cannot cure the disease of sin. And neither 
can Doctor Penance, who is a very severe and 
stern-looking doctor. Numbers in olden times 
tried Doctor Penance, whose remedies were to 
wear sackcloth next to the skin, and say many 
prayers over and over in a mechanical way, 
and to torture and torment the body by dif- 
45 



46 Talks from the 

ferent methods; and some even go to Doctor 
Penance to-day, but all in vain. Some go to 
Doctor Fasting, a very lean, long, lank doctor. 
The famous Martin Luther nearly killed him- 
self by his fasting when he was endeavoring to 
rid himself of the disease of sin. He locked 
himself in his monk's cell and fasted so long 
that they had to break the door open, and were 
just in time to save his life, the voices of the 
young boy singers helping to bring him to. 
Doctor Fasting was unable to cure Martin 
Luther of his sins, as he found out not long 
after that. And the same is true with regard 
to Doctor Intentions, who is fine looking and 
handsome, and hopes to do ever so much, but 
is unable one whit to cure sin. 

A'ter the poor woman tried the doctors, we 
are told she was "nothing bettered," "but grew 
worse." "Suffered many things of her physi- 
cians, spent all, was nothing bettered, grew 
worse." And is not the same true of you, poo ■ 
sinful child, after all your efforts, "nothing 
bettered, but rather growing worse " ? There is 
only one remedy, and that is, to come to the 
Great Physician, to come to Jesus, as the 
poor woman did. Ever so many things were 
in the way to hinder the sick woman. She was 
sick, she w r as timid, she had tried so often, 
there was such a crowd, and besides, Jairus, 



"Word of God. 47 

tlie ruler of the synagogue, was seeking help 
from Jesus. What chance was there for her? 
13 at she pressed through all the difficulties, 
"for," said she, " if I but touch the hem of his 
garment I shall be healed." And so she came 
to Jesus and touched him and was healed. 

Have you yet come to Jesus ? Will you not 
come now, child, to him? Satan will say you 
are too young, you are too bad, you do not 
know enough, there is time yet, and will do all 
in his power to prevent your coming, but do 
you press through everything he will try to 
put in the way and come to Jesus. 

' ' I can but perish if I come, 

I am resolved to try ; 

For if I stay away I know 

I shall forever die." 

Jesus perceived that virtue had gone out of 
him, and turned around and asked, u Who 
touched me?" And she, trembling, came and 
fell down at his feet and told him all. She 
confessed all to Jesus. 

And, now, have you confessed all to Jesus, 
how you have not tried to please him, nor 
sought his face, nor done his will, but have, on 
the other hand, let your mind rest on evil things 
and grieved his Spirit and refused his love? 
Have you confessed your secret sins to Jesus? 
The woman not only came to Jesus, but con- 



48 Talks from the 

fessecl to Jesus, and so should you do, too, that, 
like her, you may be comforted by Jesus. 
"Daughter," he said to her, "be of good com- 
fort, thy faith hath saved thee." Jesus loved 
to comfort. He comforted the widow of Nain, 
he comforted Martha and Mary, he comforted 
the woman the Jews wanted to stone, he com- 
forted the dying thief. But, notice, he did not 
call the woman "daughter" 'till after she had 
trusted him and after she had touched him. 
We must do like she did, trust first, if we want 
to feel his forgiveness, as well as have it. As 
some one says, " Touch first, then healing; faith 
first, then feeling." 

You cannot come to Jesus like she did, of 
course, because he is not in this city in his 
bodily presence like he was in hers. But you 
can come to him, nevertheless. Praying is 
coining to Jesus, confessing your sins is coming 
to Jesus, and, above all, simply trusting is 
coming to Jesus. 

If Jesus called her "daughter," then, as 
Jesus is king, she became the King's daughter, 
the King's first daughter. 

We hear much of the King's Daughters now- 
adays, who form themselves in bands of ten to 
relieve distress, and to perform ever so many 
acts of charity and love. But this daughter's 
work was simply to trust him, that was all. 



Woed of God. 49 

And so, if you would be happy and blessed, 
and have bis joy and touch the hem of his gar- 
ment, imitate the King's daughter's faith by 
living every day simply trusting Jesus, "simply 
trusting, that is all." 



tTfye Ceacfyer anb tfye fLvoelvc. 

Make vi. 1-13. 

THE undercurrent that seems to be running 
all through this passage is, "Honor your 
teacher." "A prophet is not without honor 
save in his own country," therefore see to it 
that, as far as your class is concerned, your 
teacher is respected and loved and honored, 
so as to prove the opposite, sometimes, at least, 
to be true. We should honor our Sunday-school 
teachers, because there are not a nobler set of 
men and women in the world. The politicians 
who prate of party and reform, of tariff and free 
trade, bi-metalism, and ever so many other things 
beside, are, for the most part, not near as good, 
true, real patriots as those who, far from being 
so conspicuous, and eager for public favor, en- 
gage in the comparatively obscure and quiet 
and unostentatious work of teaching in our 
Sunday-schools. These are true patriots, and 
these are the ones who lay the foundations 
of good government by teaching the young the 
truths of God, and so fitting them to become 
upright and worthy citizens of our beloved 
50 



Talks from the Word of God. 51 

land. So, honor jour teachers. Honor them 
always by jour presence in the class, rain or 
shine. Honor them by jour attention, and 
honor them bj jour confidence and heart j 
good-will and love. Give them little gifts from 
time to time. How easj to bring flowers everj 
Sun da j. Never should a teacher be allowed 
to leave the Sundaj-school without having re- 
ceived a few flowers from at least one member 
of the class. 

But let us turn from this to look at the great 
Teacher. 

Do jou know that there are some teachers in 
the world who would not even notice jou and 
me? Learned men in Oxford and Harvard and 
Tale, and the great universities, would not deign 
to instruct us at all. We would have to know 
a certain amount, and get to a certain standard, 
before thej would condescend to teach us anj- 
thing whatever. But not so with Jesus. Tou 
need not know a thing. You can be ever so 
ignorant and so joung, and it does not matter 
at all if onlj jou are willing to have him for 
jour teacher. That is all he wants of jou. 
He taught Mcoclemus, and he taught the wo- 
man at the well in Samaria, he taught the dis- 
ciples on the waj to Emmaus, and he taught 
in the sjnagogues on the Sabbaths, and he is 
teaching now. He is willing to teach anj one, 



52 Talks from the 

if he is only willing to learn, that is all. Are 
you willing? 

Jesus explains what he teaches. Some 
teachers set hard lessons, and so does Jesus, 
but he differs from all others in this, that he 
explains them so clearly. For instance, he 
said, "Love your enemies." How can we do 
it? He shows us how by healing Malchus' 
ear, and by praying for his enemies when on 
the cross. He says, "Rejoice with them that re- 
joice, and weep with them that weep," and so 
he goes to the marriage feast in Cana of Gali- 
lee, and weeps at the grave of Lazarus. He 
says, "Whosoever would be the greatest of all 
must be the servant of all." How can that be? 
Jesus explains it and shows how, by rising up 
from the table on the night of the last supper, 
and girding himself with a towel, and then 
stooping down and washing the disciples' feet. 
And when he said, "Greater love hath no man 
than this, that he lay down his life for his 
friends," we all know how he showed that to 
us in all its depth of meaning by giving his 
own blessed life a ransom for many, and by 
dying, the just for the unjust, that he might 
bring us to God. 

No one is so patient as Jesus is. Earthly 
teachers get often angry with their pupils, and 
out of patience with them, but Jesus — never. 



Word of God. 53 

Oh, how tender he is, and how he waits and 
what patience he shows. Will you sit at his 
feet like Mary did? He is the teacher who 
is condescending, who teaches plainly, and is 
always patient. He wants to teach yon, but 
he cannot if you are not willing to learn. But 
if you are willing, you will hear him in every 
sigh of the wind, in the rustle of leaves, the 
stretch of sky, the songs of birds, the moan of 
the sea, and the hush of night, teaching you 
lessons of his wisdom and power, and by the 
gentle whispers of his Spirit, teaching you his 
love, and preparing you for his home on high, 
and for the future learning of lessons in the 
world to come, that you are unable to under- 
stand fully here. Open your heart and the 
ears of your soul to him and listen. 



3esus tfye VTlcssiat}. 

Mark viii. 27; ix. 1. 

IT is not about the title of this lesson, but 
about its golden text, that we wish to speak : 
"If any man will come after me, let him deny 
himself and take up his cross and follow me." 

Do you know what it means to deny self? 
It means to put self last and put Jesus first, to 
put self down and raise Jesus up to a high 
place in your heart ; it is to turn your back on 
self and turn your face towards Jesus ; it is to 
trample self under foot and exalt the Lord 
Jesus on high. Did you ever deny yourself in 
order to give to Jesus? Of course, it is no de- 
nial to bring the few cents to give to foreign 
missions that your parents put in your hands 
to give. But how much did you ever give that 
was your own? And it is no denial to give if 
you tell others about it, for the praise you may 
get will more than make up for the loss of what 
you give. Self-denial is to give so that your 
left hand will not know what your right hand 
is giving. Have you ever given that way? A 
poor boy who had been saving for a long time 
to buy a watch heard a sermon on missions 
that so stirred him that he voluntarily and 
54 



Talks from the Word of God. 55 

gladly gave all his small savings, twenty-five 
dollars in all, to help send the gospel of Jesus 
to the perishing, and he did it secretly, too. 
Could you show as self-denying a spirit as he 
showed? 

Did you ever deny yourself so as to visit the 
sick? Now, it is not nice to spend one's time 
in the stuffy, close atmosphere of somebody's 
sick room. Self would say, "Go out and enjoy 
the fresh air and join in the rollicking games 
of congenial companions." But do you turn 
your back upon self, and, if need be, spend an 
afternoon in trying to while away the time as 
pleasantly as can be for some poor friend of 
yours who happens to be sick, either reading 
to him, or in some way else seeking to make 
him forget about his sickness. 

Do you deny yourself in the matter of tem- 
per? Self says, "Stand up for your rights. 
Show that you have a spirit of your own." Do 
you listen when self says that? Perhaps a 
nobler and better man scarcely ever lived than 
the brave Sir Philip Sidney. A young man 
once grossly insulted him by spitting in his 
face. Sir Philip was well known to be one of 
the best swordsmen in all Europe. He took 
out, however, his handkerchief, not his sword, 
and said, "Young man, if I could wipe your 
blood off my conscience as easily as 1 now do 



56 Talks fkom the 

this spittle off my face, I would run my sword 
through your body on the spot." There was 
self-denial of temper for you. Have you any 
such self-denying spirit in that direction as Sir 
Philip had? And, in short, do you ever deny 
self so as to do good to others ? Jerry Macau- 
ley, the converted river thief, said that what 
touched his heart more than anything else 
almost was the offer of a poor city missionary 
to pawn his poor, faded overcoat for him so as 
to give him money and thus prevent him from 
going out on the river to steal. Denying self 
in order to do good to an outlaw. Was that 
not like Jesus, who, though he was rich, yet 
for our sakes, became poor, that we, through his 
poverty, might be rich ? 

Doubtless, he means more than all this that 
we have just alluded to when he speaks of self- 
denial. He means self-denial for Jesus, self- 
denial in order to confess him. He says if we 
confess him he will confess us, but if we deny 
him he will deny us. Self says, "Oh! I don't 
feel like it. I don't want to quite, can't I wait, 
won't I be saved just as well as not without 
joining the church?" to all of which he sadly 
responds: "Whosoever shall be ashamed of 
me in this sinful and adulterous generation, of 
him also will I be ashamed." 

Think of it! We never would have been 



Word of God. 57 

saved if Jesus had not denied himself. " Even 
Christ pleased not himself." 

And so, if we would follow him, we must 
imitate his example, do the things with all our 
hearts that we think would please him, where 
our wills are crossed take the cross up and 
carry it after bim, and not think of any reward, 
but for pure love's sake deny self in order to 
please Jesus. 

Blessed be God, though, there is a reward. 
The poor boy who secretly gave all that he had 
saved for his watch to the self-denying mission- 
aries was found out, and rich friends contri- 
buted largely and bought him a handsomer 
gold watch than the good lad ever would have 
been able to obtain himself. So the richest of 
all friends will find all his loved ones out who 
are self-denying for his sake, and he will, he 
says, confess them before his Father and the 
holy angels in heaven. What that fully means 
we will never understand entirely until we all 
get to heaven. 



£fy> dfyilblike Spirit. 

Mark ix. 33-42. 

THEEE are three little words in this pas- 
sage that seem to be more full of meaning 
than all the rest together. Only nine letters in 
them, but a whole bookful of meaning, yea, and 
a whole library full. They are words that we 
can draw out like a telescope, and through them 
and by them get a good look at Jesus. The 
words are : 

In His Arms. 

Why, this world that we live in is in his arms. 
Did you ever think of it, how many people are 
on the earth? There are four hundred million 
in China alone, and that is only one little part 
of the world comparatively. Think of how 
many millions of teeming inhabitants the world 
must hold. And where does all the bread come 
from to feed so many mouths? And where 
does all the water come from to give them 
drink ? Why, Jesus pours it out to them from 
out his hands. He carries the world in his 
arms, and takes care of it, notwithstanding it 
has sinned so much against him. All the suf- 
fering ones of earth are " in his hands," and 
58 



Talks from the Word of God. 59 

all the sorrowing, and our loved ones and our 
lost ones are in Lis hands. Our friends who 
are away off in distant places are in his hands. 
I remember a little boj who used to come to 
this Sunday-school, and sat in a class right 
near to the front, and another who was in a 
class far back close to the door. Both of them 
have gone away. One is in Scotland and the 
other in London, and I often wonder what kind 
of lives they live, and if they are true to their 
promise to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, but, 
however it may be with them, I know, and it 
comforts me to think of it, that they are both 
of them "in his arms," and I can just leave 
them there. 

The lesson says that he took a little child in 
his arms. The disciples had been disputing 
about who should be greatest, and Jesus used 
the little child as an object lesson to teach them 
humility and lowliness. 

Now, the Bible says a great deal about his 
high and holy arm, and his gracious arm and 
his strong arm, and in one place even speaks of 
the "lightning down" of his arm, but we should 
especially note that his arm is strong. Mother 
may love the babe ever so much and love to 
carry it, but her arms will get tired sometimes. 
Not so, though, with Jesus' arms. His arms 
never weary and never get tired. His arms 



60 Talks from the 

can carry you through this day, and through 
this week, and through all the weeks and 
months and years of your life, and he can carry 
you in his arms through the valley of the 
shadow of death, and across the river, and he 
will carry you in his arms, still, after you have 
passed through the gates of heaven and not 
set you down till he places you in one of his 
own thrones in heaven. There will come a 
time when mother and father will be unable to 
carry any longer, for their poor arms will be 
cold and stiff in death. But his are the "ever- 
lasting arms." "The eternal God is thy refuge, 
and underneath are the everlasting arms." 
(Deut. xxxiii. 27.) Well, did Jesus have this 
child in his arms a short time or a long time? 
We think it must have been a long time, for the 
simple reason that there seems to have been a 
change in the subject of conversation before he 
came back again (see Mark ix. 38-41) to talk- 
ing about the little child. And the reason why 
he held the child so long in his arms, doubtless, 
was because he loved children so. When he 
talked to Peter on the seashore and asked him, 
"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" and 
Peter said, " Yea, Lord, thou knowest all things, 
thou knowest that I love thee," Jesus said to 
him, "Feed my lambs," that is, look after my 
children. In Isaiah it says, "He shall gather 



Word of God. 61 

the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his 
bosom." He went to see the little sick daughter 
of Jairus, and healed the sick little son of the 
rich Roman nobleman. And you remember 
how many beautiful things he said about chil- 
dren. "It is not the will of my Father that one 
of his little ones should perish." " If any one 
offend one of these little ones it were better 
that a millstone were hanged about his neck, 
and he were cast into the depths of the sea." 
"Whoever shall give one of them a cup of cold 
water in my name shall in no wise lose his 
reward," and "their angels do always behold 
the face of my Father which is in heaven." 
Perhaps we have all of us our guardian angels, 
who go to and from heaven constantly on 
errands and messages of love to help us. But 
the angels of little children are allowed to go 
into the very presence of God himself, "and 
they always behold the face of the Father which 
is in heaven." 

Those arms, though, that were wrapped 
around that little child in a loving embrace, 
were afterward stretched out upon the cross 
when his hands were pierced by the cruel nails. 
God had said that if we did not keep his law 
we must pay the forfeit. And the forfeit was 
our life. But Jesus paid the forfeit for us 
when he died upon the cross. He died our 



62 Talks from the 

death; he suffered in our place, so that you 
and I "should not perish, but have everlasting 
life." Oh! how good in him. 

And now his arms are outstretched in an- 
other way, to invite you to come to him, and to 
trust him and to love him and to put yourself 
in his hands, and let him hold you in his arms, 
and will not you do it? Did that little child 
go hesitatingly or willingly to the arms of 
Jesus? Why, willingly, of course. Think you 
that it felt frightened? Why, no; it felt safe, 
"safe in the arms of Jesus," and doubtless 
rested peacefully and happily in those loving 
arms. We can imagine how affectionately it 
would gaze into that blessed face. And if it 
could talk, perhaps, when it was put down, it 
woulJ run and tell his little friends, "Why, he 
had me in his arms, he had me in his arms," 
and as that little boy grew older, do you not 
know that he would love to look back and 
think about that day and talk about it, "Once 
I was taken up into the arms of the blessed 
Son of God." 

Rest 
In His Arms. 

The famous Dr. Guthrie saw a little girl once 
carrying a very heavy baby. With his usual 
kindness of heart he stopped her, and said, 
"Lassie, surely that child is too heavy for you." 



Word of God. 63 

She looked at him. in surprise, and said, "No, 
sir, he is my brother." She could not under- 
stand how her little brother could by any 
means be too heavy a burden. 

If this little girl carried her heavy baby 
brother so willingly, how much more able 
Jesus is to carry you in his arms. Love makes 
the burden easy. If you trust him, his arms 
are always around you. And in his arms is 
the place of rest, the place of happiness, and 
the place of safety. Say, like another one did : 

"A guilty, Tveak and helpless worm, 
In thy kind arms I fall ; 
Be thou my Lord and Righteousness, 
My Saviour and my all." 

Rest 

In His Arms, 

which 

Are 
lways 
round YOU. 



(Christ's Sore to tfye IJoung. 

Mark x. 13-22. 

SUFFEB the little children to come unto 
me, and forbid them not, for of such is the 
kingdom of God." If I were to ask you chil- 
dren in this school if this verse applied to you, 
you would doubtless say "yes"; but does it? 
Who has forbidden you to come? Has your 
pastor? Why, I have heard him time and 
again urge you and plead with you to come to 
Jesus, and not a Sunday passes that he does 
not pray in behalf of you, every one. Who 
has forbidden you ? Has your superintendent ? 
Why, you know that nothing more would glad- 
den his heart than to see you all come to Jesus. 
Have your teachers? Why, they, too, would 
rejoice exceedingly to behold you confess Jesus. 
And have your parents at home ? Why I do not 
believe they have. The trouble is, not that you 
cannot come, but you will not come; not that 
you are forbidden to come, but you do not 
want to come. You know that you ought to 
come, but you do not come. 

Have you thought of the difference between 
those children that came to Jesus, and children 
to-day? Those children were not invited to 
64 



Talks fkom the Wokd of God. 65 

come, but you are. Those children had those 
who opposed, but you have friends to help. 
Those children did not know how they would 
be received, but you do know that Jesus will 
welcome you with open arms. But those chil- 
dren came, while you children do not come. 

And yet Jesus loves you. He loves you 
with a constant love. That is, he has been 
loving you all the time, ever since you were 
born, ever since the time when you did not 
have any sense, nor know how to talk. He 
has loved you in sickness and in health, and 
by day and by night. In his love he has 
housed you ; he has given you a home, he has 
fed, he has clothed you ; he has made the lines 
to fall to you in pleasant places ; he has filled 
your cup to overflowing. Suppose you were 
to go to the house of one of your friends, and 
he was to slam the door in your face. What 
would you think of him? That is what you 
have been doing to Jesus. You have slammed 
the door of your heart in his face. You have 
turned your back on Jesus. You have grieved 
and vexed his most Holy Spirit. And yet he 
loves you. He has loved you with a costly 
love. 

History tells us of a king of Babylon who 
wooed a princess who lived in a mountainous 
country. But when he won her and took her 
9 



66 Talks from the 

away as his bride, she did not like her new 
home. She missed her mountains. So the 
king employed thousands of workmen, who 
threw up an immense mound that was almost 
like a mountain, and they terraced it off into 
beautiful gardens that were so lovely that the 
Hanging Gardens of Babylon, as they were 
called, became famous, and were considered 
one of the wonders of the world. It was costly 
love that led him to spend so much to do this. 
But that was not the most costly love that ever 
was. 

In India there exists a magnificent tomb that 
one of the kings there erected to his wife, a 
building that is of marble, with ornaments of 
gold and silver, and parts of it inlaid with the 
most precious stones. It was costly love that 
caused this marvel of wealth and beauty to be 
erected, and it is said to be one of the most 
exquisite pieces of architecture in the world 
to-day. But that was not the most costly love 
that was ever shown ; nor was the love of Solo- 
mon, who erected his magnificent temple to 
God, the most costly love, either. We read in 
the eleventh chapter of the First Book of Chron- 
icles that King David had three mighty war- 
riors. When King David said, " Oh, that one 
would give me drink of the water of the well 
that is at Bethlehem, by the gate," these three 



Word of God. 67 

men brake through the ranks of their foes and 
brought back the water to drink to their king 
whom they loved. And that was, we may say, 
costly love that led these three to risk their 
lives for their king. But that was not the 
most costly love that ever was. The most 
costly love was shown by him who took little 
children up in his arms. I see three crosses, 
and on the centre cross is this blessed Friend 
of children. And why is he there? Has he 
done any wrong? No. Has he broken any 
laws? No. Has he harmed any one or de- 
stroyed any one's life? No. Has he sinned 
or committed crime like a malefactor? No. 
But he is there for children and for all who be- 
lieve on him. Children have sinned, and must 
die for their sins. But, blessed be God for it, 
Jesus has died for them and has suffered on 
the cross in their place. " Herein is love, not 
that we loved God, but that he loved us and 
sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 
"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because 
he laid down his life for us." Those three men 
were, maybe, under obligations to King David 
when they risked their lives to do him a favor. 
Maybe the king had done something for 
them, and they wanted to make some return. 
But what have you ever done for Jesus that he 
should make such a return to you? "God 



68 Talks from the 

commendeth his love to us in that when we 
were yet sinners Christ died for us." And 
" God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
That was the costliest love that ever was. 

Christ's love for children is a changeless love : 
constant, costly, changeless. The winds blow 
one way to-day and another way to-morrow, 
and the clouds will float in a different direction 
to-morrow, perhaps, from what they are going 
to-day; but his love is forever the same. It is 
changeless love. He loves to have children 
around. We do not know what put it into the 
minds of these mothers to bring their little 
children to Jesus. I can imagine them talking 
about it and agreeing among themselves to do 
it. And then, perhaps, they would hesitate a 
little. But maybe, if the children were old 
enough, they would beg to be taken. How 
like dashing cold water over their love when 
the disciples would not let them come to Jesus. 
But then, when they heard Jesus say, " Suffer 
the little children to come unto me, and forbid 
them not, for of such is the kingdom of God," 
how glad they must have been, and how their 
young hearts must have leapt for joy, and they 
felt, perhaps, as if all the bells of heaven had 
been set a-riDging in their hearts. Doubtless 



Word of God. 69 

they would talk about it for days and years 
after, how lovingly the blessed hands were laid 
upon them. And do you not suppose they 
were often glad they never waited till they 
were grown up before they came to Jesus? 
Jesus loves to have the little children come to 
him. He was a little child, once, himself. 

In London there is a good man named Dr. 
Barnardo, who has about two thousand chil- 
dren, I believe, in his care — children whom he 
has picked up off the streets and has given a 
home. So, too, Mr. Spurgeon had his orphan- 
ages where there are still numbers of poor 
children, and so has Mr. Moody and Mr. 
Muller, of Bristol. These men are very great 
friends of children. And the question is some- 
times asked, Who will take their places when 
they are gone? for the time must come when 
they will die. "When father and mother for- 
sake you, the Lord will take you up." 

' ' There is a Friend for children, 
Above the bright blue sky — 
A Friend who never faileth, 
Whose love will never die." 

Jesus is such a Friend that, as we have seen, 
he "lay down his life for you." He loved you ; 
he died for you; he lives to help you, and give 
you strength and his Holy Spirit. And now 
he wants you. He invites you to come to him, 



70 Talks feox the Word of God. 

and he is calling to you to come now. Will 
you come? There are two Yerses in the Old 
Testament that are like what this Yerse, "suffer 
the little children," is in the New. The first is, 
"Thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all 
thy heart and with all thy soul." (Deut. iY. 
29.) And the second is, "I love them that love 
me; and those that seek me early shall find 
me." (ProY. viii. 17.) 

CHRIST'S LOVE TO CHILDREN— 
Constant, 
Costly, 
Changeless. 



3lin6 Bartimeus* 

Maek x. 46-52. 

THERE are two persons mentioned in this 
short narrative, Jesus and Bartimeus. 
Let ns look first at Jesus, and note this, that 
he heard Bartimeus above all the noise of the 
crowd. And when you pray to him in dead 
earnest, like Bartimeus did, he hears you, too. 
Nothing can stop your prayer to him. The 
roof of the church or the house cannot do it. 
The sky cannot; the sun and moon and the 
stars will not stop it, and the skies that are 
above the skies will not stop it. And if it 
should rise up and find the gates of heaven 
shut, that will not stop it either. It will go 
right on, right into the heart of heaven, until 
it reaches the very ear of God. Jesus not only 
heard, but he had pity; and he helped blind 
Bartimeus and gave him his sight, and so 
answered his prayer. 

Now, let us look at Bartimeus. Eirst, note 
that he was blind. Second, note that he was a 
beggar. Third, note that he was a believer. 
He believed in Jesus before he was ever able 
to see him, just like many poor sinners do to- 



72 Talks from the 

day. Jesus, blessed be his name, is the one 
" whom, having not seen, we love ; in whom, 
though now w T e see him not, } T et believing, we 
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 
Did you ever try to picture to yourself what 
would be this man's thoughts as he sat there 
by the wayside? Doubtless, many a time as he 
sat there, he would say to himself, " Oh, how I 
wish I could see. I wonder what the flowers 
look like. How gay they must be in their 
glorious colors! But what is color? And they 
say there is no fairer city anywhere than Jeru- 
salem, and that the temple there is magnificent, 
and these Judean hills about me! Alas! I 
shall never see them, however. If only some 
one could give me back my sight. But that 
can never be!" And now, maybe, as he is 
thinking in some such strain as that, some one 
says to him : " Bartimeus, have you heard of 
the wonderful prophet who is going up and 
down in the land? There has never been any 
such in Israel, Bartimeus. He makes the sor- 
rowful to rejoice, and sets poor captives free, 
and even his enemies say of him, 'Never man 
spake like this man.'" "Why, no," Bartimeus 
■would reply, " I have never heard of him ; what 
is his name?" "His name is Jesus of Naza- 
reth. He makes the deaf to hear, the dumb to 
speak ; he even cures poor lepers ; and, what is 



Word of God. 73 

better than all that, Bartiineus, he makes the 
blind see." "But, oh!" eagerly inquires the 
blind man, "are you sure of that?" "Why, 
yes, because he made me see. One thing I 
know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." 
Then, doubtless, from that day on, the prayer 
of Bartimeus would be that Jesus of Nazareth 
might pass that way. And one day he hears 
a voice, he hears a breath, say, it is Christ of 
Nazareth, and calls in tones of agony, "Thou 
Son of David, have mercy on me " Jesus coni- 
^mands the crowd to bring him to him; and 
when Bartimeus again asks him to give him 
light, Jesus graciously gives his lost sight back 
to him. 

Is there anything more sad than to be blind? 
True, that blind people are generally blessed with 
great enlargement of some other faculty, they 
are either fine musicians, can hear wonderfully, 
or are sometimes great orators and the like. 
But what is all that to them when thev cannot 
see? If it is sad to be blind, how much more 
is it to be soul blind. If it is sad to look on 
a number of pupils in a blind asylum, how 
much more sad to look into the faces of a 
number of children with wide-awake eyes and 
who are yet unable to see. What does it amount 
to if you have fine clothes and pleasant counte- 
nances and happy homes and scores of things 
10 



74 Talks from the 

to make life pleasant and joyous, if yet with all 
of these things you are not able to see, you 
cannot see, Jesus? 

Notice this, only Jesus can make you see. 
The crowds could not make Bartimeus see, nor 
the disciples, nor any others who may have often 
looked on him as they passed that way. Sun- 
day-school teachers cannot make you see. The 
superintendent cannot make you see. Your 
pastor cannot make you see. Only Jesus could 
make Bartimeus see. Only Jesus can make you 
see. It was in answer to prayer that Bartimeus 
saw. Do you pray ? An old saint has said that if 
Jesus had been on his way to make a star, he 
would have stopped at that prayer to open the 
eyes of the blind man. 

But suppose Bartimeus had let him go by? 
What then ? Why, he would in all probability 
never have seen. He would have remained 
blind all the rest of his life and he would have 
died blind. And so with you. Will it not be 
so ? If you let Jesus go by, you will stay blind, 
be blind for all the rest of your days and you 
will then die blind. And for those who die 
blind there remaineth nothing but the blackness 
of darkness forever. They will never see light, 
never see glory, never see Jesus, never see 
heaven. 

Will you let Jesus clean go by? Will you 



Word of God. 75 

not get down on your knees and pray him to 
give you sight? 

O Lord, shew me myself, 
O Lord, shew me thyself. 

JESUS Bartimeus, 

Heard, Blind, 

Had pity, Beggar, but a 

Helped. Believer. 



(Lbe Kcjccteb Son. 

Mark xii. 1-12, 

IN the parable of the wicked husbandmen, 
did the Lord send only one servant, or two 
servants, or three servants, or many servants ? 
He sent many. The first servant was simply 
beaten, the second was wounded in the head and 
shamefully handled, the third was killed, and 
when at last the only and well-beloved son was 
sent to them, they not only killed the son, but 
denied him even decent burial, so the parable 
seems to hint, for "they took him, and killed 
him, and cast him out of the vineyard." They 
went from bad to worse in their wickedness. 
Do you sit in judgment upon them, though, 
when, perchance, you are no better yourself? 
Has not God also sent you many messengers ? 
When there was a funeral from the house 
where you live, was not the messenger, Death, 
speakiDg powerfully to you? And was not it 
as though this message was brought to you, 
"Life is short, and you, too, child, must die, 
therefore 'prepare to meet thy God'"? The 
Bible is another messenger, and although you 
never open it at all to read it, have you not 
over and over heard this message coinrng to 
76 



Talks from the "Word of God. 77 

you out of it, "My son, give me thy heart"? 
Sunday-school teachers and ministers are mes- 
sengers, pleading with you continually to give 
yourself to Christ. Conscience is one of the 
Lord's messengers, and is constantly telling 
you, " Yes, that is right, that is what you ought 
to do ; you know you should give your heart to 
God." And the Holy Spirit, what a blessed 
messenger he is, always wooing you to accept 
Jesus as he is freely offered to you in the 
gospel. How have you treated these messen- 
gers of the Most High? Have not they vir- 
tually been handled "shamefully" by you? 

Xow, these men were shut up to one of two 
things with the servants or messengers, either 
to reject them or to receive them. And they 
wilfully rejected them, and not only the ser- 
vants, but the son himself. And so you, too, 
are shut up to one of two things, either to 
reject Jesus or to receive him. And the im- 
portant question is, Which of the two have 
you done? 

There is a story told of an old king, who, 
finding that age was unfitting him for his royal 
duties, decided to divide his kingdom among 
his children. He thought he could, after he 
had done this, reside so many months in the 
year with one child, and then so many months 
with another, and so on, and that each of them, 



78 Talks from the 

of course, would be most glad to have him. 
But when he went to the first child's house he 
was coldly received, and even insulted by her. 
So shamefully was he treated that he left her 
house, saying to her, " I know my other chil- 
dren will not treat me as you have done." But 
when he went to the second child's house he 
was treated just as badly. And so it was as he 
went from child to child, none of them received 
him kindly until he came to the youngest, who, 
although he had done less for her than for any 
of the others, received him and welcomed him 
and cheered him, and proved herself in every 
way his own dear child. 

Is not that like something else nowadays? 
Does not the Lord Jesus go from child to child, 
and does not nearly every single child reject 
him? Should not you see to it, that, as for 
others, whatever they may do, for your part 
you will receive him? Keceive him as your 
guest, receive him as your guide, receive him 
as God's unspeakable gift, receive him as 
doubting Thomas did, as your Lord and your 
God. 

Notice what happened to the wicked hus- 
bandmen. For the rejection there came on 
them fearful retribution, and just so must it 
be with every one that rejects the Son of God; 
but for those that receive him, rejoicing. " There 



Word of God. 79 

is joy in the presence of the angels of God," we 
are told, " over one sinner that repenteth." But 
that joy is too far-away off for us to know very 
much about it. We only know, who have felt 
it ourselves, that there is such joy in the poor 
sinner's heart who receives him that words 
cannot tell it. It is as though an angel had 
swept his fingers across the strings of the poor 
sinner's heart, and made "melody in that heart" 
unto God. That is the way the sinner feels 
about it who receives him. What is it that you 
are going to do, receive him or reject him? 
And what is it that you are going to find, retri- 
bution or rejoicing? 

Reject means Retribution. 
Receive means Rejoicing. 



{Tfye tEttfo (Brcat (£omman5ments, 

Mark xii. 28-34. 

HOW many commandments are there? 
Ten, do you say ? Are there not eleven ? 
Did not Jesus say, "A new commandment give 
I unto you, that ye love one another"? In 
this lesson we have the New Testament com- 
mandments. The Old Testament command- 
ments are the "shalt not" commandments, but 
the New Testament commandments are "thou 
shalt." The ten in the Old Testament tell us 
what not to do, the two here in the New tell 
us what to do. Notice, Jesus did not speak 
these words for all the world simply, but for us 
here, and not only for us here altogether, but 
for each one. The command is in the singular 
number, " T/wu shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart," and so on. 

A story is told of an Arab sheik, who, when 
he was dying, called his three sons to his bed- 
side and said to them : " Only one of you is my 
son. Two of you are my foster-children, and 
I leave all my property to my son." But be- 
fore he could indicate which one of the three 
was his son he died. The tribe was assembled 
together, and after consultation it was deter- 
80 



Talks feom the Wokd of God. 81 

mined to prop the body of the old chief up 
against the wall, and let the three sons take the 
bow and arrow and shoot and see who could 
come nearest the father's heart. The eldest 
son shot first. The arrow went whizzing away 
through the air, lodging in the very centre of 
the old man's heart. Then the second took his 
aim like the oldest had done, and swift and 
sure sped his arrow within a hair's breadth of 
the first, lying over it, in fact, overlapping it. 
But when the bow and arrow were put into the 
youngest son's hands he dashed them to the 
ground. " Perish the inheritance," said he. 
" Do you think I could send an arrow into my 
father's heart?" And all the people shouted 
and made the air ring with their acclamations. 
"He is the son! he is the son!" they cried; 
and all the property and the kingdom from 
that moment became the youngest's. 

Is it so with you ? Do you feel that it is im- 
possible for you to wound your heavenly 
Father's heart, and that you could never, will- 
ingly, grieve him ? In other words, do you love 
the Lord your God with all your heart and soul 
and strength and mind ? Is it not strictly true 
that you do not thus love God ? And is it not 
true that you love something more than God ? 
And will not that thing, whatever it is, work 



82 Talks from the 

up? Will you not give it up for love of him 
who gave all up for you? Kemember, it is a 
command of Jesus, " Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart and with all thy 
soul and with all thy strength and with all thy 
mind." 

Then he added to that, "and thy neighbor as 
thyself." When some one asked him, "Who 
is my neighbor ? " he told them the beautiful 
parable of the good Samaritan, who, when he 
saw the poor wounded man by the roadside, 
went to him and bound up his wounds and 
cared for him after every one else had passed 
him by. Everybody is our neighbor, in the 
Bible meaning of the word. The little heathen 
boy or girl in the far-off land is just as much 
our neighbor as those living on the same street 
with ourselves or in the very next house to the 
one we live in. And the drunken man we see 
reeling through the streets is our neighbor, too. 
We must love all and do all the good that we 
can to all. What! love a drunkard! Yes, 
love him this way : by not laughing at him, but 
praying God to take pity on him and save him 
from his overpowering appetite for strong 
drink. And do you know that this is what we 
ought chiefly to live for : first, to love God 
with all our heart, and second, our neighbor 
as ourselves? If you live for anything else, 



Word of God. 83 

jour life will be an utter failure. You know 
people do live, for the most part, for every- 
thing else — for wealth, for happiness, for plea- 
sure, for fame. But such lives will go out at 
last in most fearful darkness. Only those lives 
that are spent for God are the truly happy 
lives, and they are the only really successful 
lives. 



Destruction of the (Temple Jore* 
tolo. 

Mark xiii. 1-13. 
•• Take heed." 

THESE t" -cur twice in these thir- 

- - and in a number of other 
chapters in the Bible. For in-" Tak e 

heed that you do not your alms before men to 

I mi d : " ■ T .":• hi ed, beware of c 
onsness;" "Take heed, Lest I in you an 

evil heart of unbelief in departing from the 
living God:"' "Take heed that no man deceive 
you." •• My -on, if sinners entice thee, eoi - 
thou not." 

rtainly teachers in the Sunday-schools do 
I 
a danger of their doing so. In our effort 
make it simple and easy and plain and clear 
that willing to save, the 

otb*r: - a oftentimes left untold, namely, 

that ,: he that believeth - is ondenined 
already, because he hath" not believed in the 
name of the only begotten Son of Gi *d. w " Take 
heed." then. "thai no man deceive you." 

We read of one of the old prophets who went 
-4 



Talks from the Word of God. 85 

through a great city for three days crying out, 
"Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be de- 
stroyed." The people of that city believed it, 
and repented and prayed, and turned and came 
back to God. They took heed to the warning 
that was given them, and God spared them. 

In Noah's time, though, notwithstanding that 
warning was given to the people, they refused 
to repent and return and believe in the word of 
the Lord, and so were destroyed. Which of 
the two will you be like? 

It must have been sad to think of the mag- 
nificent temple being destroyed. Built of 
marble, with gates overlaid with silver and 
gold and roof all gold, it was truly a dazzling 
spectacle. And, doubtless, the interior was, if 
anything, more magnificent than it appeared 
without. But what is more sad is to think of 
a soul destroyed, and destroyed, too, because 
it will not give up sin, self-destroyed. Could 
not the beauty of the temple save the temple? 
No! Could not the grandeur of it and the 
wealth of it save it? No! Well, did the 
people believe it would be destroyed? Did 
not they feel it was impossible that it could 
ever be ? And could not that feeling save it ? 
Not at all. 

And so neither can beauty of personal char- 
acter, nor anything that you have or are, nor 



86 Talks from the Word of God. 

any feeling in the matter, save you at all, no 
matter what it is, unless you believe in Jesus. 

Did Jesus want to see the temple destroyed ? 
No, for he Avept over it. And so neither does 
he desire to see your soul destroyed. This is 
what we read in the blessed Bible: "Say unto 
them, as I live saith the Lord, I take no plea- 
sure in the death of the wicked, but that the 
wicked turn from their wickedness and live. 
Turn ye, turn ye, for wiiy will ye die?" Jeru- 
salem was destroyed as our Lord Jesus pre- 
dicted. So he warns you and me most solemnly 
in these words of his, " ye shall die in your 
sins, if ye believe not that I am he. Take heed 
lest any man deceive you. Take heed to your- 
selves." 



Cfye <£ommcm& to Watch. 

Maek xiii. 24-37. 

"IV "TOT very long ago the people all over the 
_U\ land were celebrating the centennial of the 
inauguration of General Washington as Presi- 
dent of the United States. The thoughts of 
many people ran back to the time, a hundred 
years ago, when, after all the suffering at Val- 
ley Forge of Washington and his brave men, 
the great father of his country was at last vic- 
torious, and was then inaugurated as rirst Presi- 
dent of the United States. And the thoughts 
of others, perhaps, went back further still. 
Many called to mind the hardships of the 
original colonists who were here, say two hun- 
dred years ago. Just think how they had all 
the time to be on the watch. After they had 
cleared a little space for themselves out of the 
vast forests they had constantly in their little 
camps to be on the lookout against the Indians. 
These Indians were around them all the time, 
seeking to destroy them. Imagine, now, there 
was some traitor in their camp in league with 
the Indians, letting the Indians know all about 
the camp, how small it was, how weak it 
was, and how little provisions there were, and 
87 



88 Talks from the 

secretly telling them all the time all about 
everything. How fearful anything like that 
would have been ! But just that is your state 
and my state all the time. We have the ene- 
mies of evil temptations without, and we have 
the traitor in the camp — our own sinful hearts, 
which the Bible says are deceitful above all 
things and desperately wicked. Some one has 
said that we, each one of us, carry a devil 
about in us, who is all the time echoing what 
the devil outside says to us. For instance, 
here are two boys who have started on their 
way to Sunday-school. They each have been 
given a nickel to put in the collection. The 
devil outside says to them, "Say, what is the 
use of giving that money to the Sunday-school ; 
here, see, you are passing the drug store, or the 
fruit store, get some candy or some fruit with 
it. Parents will never know." And the little 
devil inside echoes, "Never know." This boy 
knows his mother does not wish him to go to a 
certain place, but he is tempted to go. The 
devil outside says, "Why, go ahead. You 
might just as well as not; don't mind." And 
the little devil inside echoes, " Don't mind." 
A boy or girl is tempted to steal. They have 
never stolen before, but although the color flies 
from their cheeks, and they know it is wrong, 
they listen to the devil outside, who whispers to 



Word of God. 89 

them, "It is wrong, of course, but then you 
have no idea of always doing this as a regular 
thing. You are going to stop after this; it's 
only once!" And the devil in your heart, 
grinning and laughing, echoes, "Only once." 
You know there are lots of things you do that 
are wrong, and the devil says to you, "No one 
will ever find out. They may sometimes think 
you do these things, but, then, you must be 
careful not to be caught, and they will never 
find out; they'll never see." The little devil 
within echoes it, "Never see." But will not 
God see? "Thou God seest me." "He will 
bring into judgment every hidden thing with 
every secret thing, whether it be good or 
whether it be evil." Oh, then, do not you see 
how it is necessary for you to watch — watch 
against the snares and wiles of the devil, and 
watch your own sinful and evil and deceiving- 
hearts? Jesus added another word to that 
word "watch," and that was "pray." "Watch 
and pray." Did you ever stop to think how 
many prayers are mentioned in the Bible that 
were made when it was altogether too late? 
We will simply notice one or .two. The five 
foolish virgins prayed when it was too late. 
They put off too long getting the oil for their 
lamps, and so when they knocked at the door 
after the bridegroom had gone in, and prayed, 
12 



90 Talks from the 

"Lord, Lord, open unto us," he answered them 
from within, " I never knew you." Thus, from 
within the gates of heaven, alas! will come the 
voice of Jesus to many, saying, " I never knew 
you." Dives, who would not help poor Laza- 
rus in his lifetime, prayed in hell, we are told, 
but it was too late. The people that we read 
of in the sixth chapter of Revelation, who 
prayed to the rocks and mountains to fall on 
them and hide them from the face of the Lamb, 
prayed when it was too late. And, besides, they 
prayed in the wrong direction, like Dives did. 
Dives prayed to Abraham, but Abraham could 
not grant him his request; and neither can 
rocks and mountains answer prayers. 

So if you are going to pray, pray now. Pray 
for the thing which you feel you want most. 
And keep on praying. Read the eleventh 
chapter of Luke from the fifth through to the 
end of the tenth verse. ~We read about the 
man there who went to his neighbor and asked 
him, in dead of night, to lend him three loaves, 
as a friend had come on a visit to him at his 
house. But the neighbor answered that he 
was in bed with his children and could not 
do it. Jesus said that although he would not 
give him at first, yet for his importunity he 
would get up and give him as many as he 
desired. So you must pray. Are you afraid 



Word of God. 91 

of God? Do you want the perfect love that 
casts out fear ? Then ask and pray, and pray 
and ask again. No matter how great may be 
your fear, " God will answer prayer sometime, 
somewhere." You can throw all your burden 
on him, and no matter how great the care " God 
will answer prayer sometime, somewhere." Re- 
member he is not a God afar off, but very near, 
and "he will answer prayer sometime, some- 
where." So you need never despair since he 
is our loving heavenly Father, who loves to 
hear us pray, and will surely answer our 
prayer "sometime, somewhere." 

But one thing else we must do as well as 
watch and pray, and that is, we must " work." 
Each one of us has his own work to do. You 
cannot do my work, and neither can I do yours. 
"The Son of man is as a man taking a far 
journey, who left his house, and gave authority 
to his servants and to every man his work." 
"You are," as a quaint man has said, "the key 
to fit some lock that no other key will fit as 
well." Do not complain because you cannot 
do as much as some one else can, but do the 
best you can. I often wish I could be like 
some of these teachers I know. I wish I could 
be as prayerful as one, as pleasant as another, 
as fond of the Bible as another, as earnest as 
another, as loyal as all. But because I cannot 



92 Talks from the Word of God. 

be all this, must I clo nothing? Why, no! You 
and I must look about and do the work that is 
nearest at hand for God, no matter how humble 
it may seem. One has said that if two angels 
were sent from heaven, one to rule a world and 
the other to sweep a pavement, the one that 
swept the pavement would be just as happy 
and cheerful and contented as the one that 
ruled the world. "Do with your might," then, 
"whatever you find to do." Doubtless it is 
your work to study your Bible more, it is your 
work to be more careful how you act at home, 
and see to it that you set a good example to 
your younger brothers and sisters, and it is 
your work, in short, to live for Jesus. And 
why all this watching, this praying, and this 
working? Because Jesus is coming again, 
glory to God, and we shall see him as he is, 
and he will take as where he is to live with him 
for ever more. 

So let us watch against temptations, tempta- 
tions without, and temptations within. Let us 
pray in the Spirit always, and work for him 
with all our hearts, striving to bring the poor 
lost world back to his blessed feet, and so live 
that when he shall come back suddenly he will 
not find any of us sleeping. 



0}e Ctnointtng at Bethany. 

Maek xiv. 1-9. 

IF you feel any love in your heart for Jesus, 
show it. The woman who anointed Jesus 
at Bethany was undoubtedly full of holy love 
in her heart toward Christ. Why she should 
feel just this way, we cannot tell. Maybe Jesus 
had done something for her ; many suppose 
that she was the Mary whose brother, Lazarus, 
Jesus had raised from the dead. Perhaps she 
had heard about him, maj T be she had heard him 
speak, herself, perhaps she had looked on his 
blessed face and its infinite sadness and ten- 
derness had been impressed on her mind. 
But whatever it was, she wanted to show how 
she loved him, and so she brought her alabas- 
ter box of ointment, and brake the box and 
poured the ointment upon his blessed head. 
Is there no way in which you, too, can show 
your love to him ? 

Not long ago, in the city of Macon, Ga., a 
little girl happened to go into a room where 
her mother and grandmother were fitting to- 
gether, and she noticed that they were both in 
tears. Upon asking them what was the matter, 
93 



94 Talks fro^i the 

they said to her: "Oh, my dear child, we have 
heard such bad news. TVe have just received 
a letter from Savannah, and it says that our 
dear old church there has been burned to the 
ground — the church that your mother and 
grandmother were both married in, and in 
which you were christened when you were a 
little child." And they were so affected that 
they cried again, which made the poor child 
cry, too. Presently she went out of the room 
(she was only a little thing of about six or 
seven summers, perhaps), and returned in a 
few moments with eight brand new cents in 
her hand. Some one had given her twenty- 
five, but these were all that were now left. 
Going up to her mother she said to her: 
"Mamma, don't cry any more. I want you to 
take my eight cents and send them down to 
Savannah, and tell them to build the church 
with it, and tell them to build the Sunday- 
school building, too " (which had also been 
burned down). " And if anybody was hurt in 
the lire, I want them to help the poor people 
that were hurt. And then just say to them, if 
anything is left over please to send it back 
to me." 

Dear little innocent! That was the way she 
would show the love she felt in her heart. It 
reminds us of the widow and her mite. For 



Word of God. 95 

all we know, probably rich men in Jerusalem 
would drive up in style to the temple and drop 
in their large, gold coins that would just ring 
again in the bottom of the treasury box. And 
we can imagine how haughtily the Pharisees 
would make their contributions, as if to say, 
"Just see how generous we are." And so 
some would come and others would come, in 
large sums and small sums, making their several 
offerings to God. Amongst them came a widow, 
a poor woman, maybe so poor as almost to be 
ashamed to be seen in the temple. Perhaps 
her dress was well worn and faded, and she 
would have been so glad if she could have 
come and had no one to see her at all. But 
Jesus saw her. He called the attention of the 
disciples to her. Doubtless her little tiny mite 
did not make any noise whatever as she dropped 
it into the treasury. Yet Jesus said she had 
put in more than all the others, for they had 
cast in of their abundance, but the widow had 
cast in all she had ; it was all her living. And 
the widow's mite lias brought thousands and 
millions into the treasury of God. It is not 
the amount that we give, but that which is 
back of the amount, or behind the amount. 
It is the motive that counts with God, and it 
is the love in our hearts that prompts us to do 
for him that is most valuable in his eves. He 



96 Talks from the Word of God. 

loves us to give with abandonment to him, like 
the woman at Bethany did. She did not get 
the scales and delicately weigh in them just 
how much she should give to Jesus, but she 
gave the best to him, and she gave all her best. 
The box might have been saved to use again 
some time, but no, that must be given, too, and 
so she crushed it, brake it, so that once used 
for such a sacred purpose it might never be 
used again. 

Let us give ourselves in like abandonment to 
him : give our hearts, give our wills, give our 
hands to work for him, our feet to walk in his 
ways, our lips to sing his praise, our whole 
lives to spend in his work. 



3csus before tfye (EounctL 

Mask xiv. 55-65. 

JESUS 
Before the Council. 

AFTER Jesus was taken in Gethsemane he 
was carried away first of all to Annas, 
and then to Caiaphas the high priest. How 
did he look when he was there before Caiaphas ? 
Must he not have been very tired ? It was now 
about three o'clock in the morning. Imagine 
him standing there before the council very 
weary and very sad. They asked many ques- 
tions of him and tried to find something to 
say against him, but all in vain. And even 
when they accused him of having said that 
he would destroy the temple and build it in 
three days, their witness did not agree, for 
Jesus had never said that he would destroy 
the temple, but spoke of the Jews doing that, 
and referred to his own body as the temple not 
made with hands that he would raise again in 
three days. They misquoted him. They tried 
to twist his words so as to turn them against 
him. And having failed in it all, there was 
only one thing left to tbem to do, and that they 
13 97 



98 Talks from the 

did. The high priest asked him most solemnly 
to tell him whether or not he was, indeed, the 
Son of God, to which Jesus answered, "I am." 
And went on further to tell the high priest that 
he would surely see the Son of man one day 
coming in the clouds with power. The high 
priest rent his clothes at that, pretending to be 
horrified at the blasphemy, exclaiming, "What 
need have we of any further witnesses? " And 
what followed, oh! that it should have to be 
spoken at all ! They buffeted Jesus, they smote 
him, they spit in his face. Imagine it ! The 
blessed Saviour treated so! They blindfolded 
him and would then strike him, saying to him, 
"Prophesy unto us who struck thee." 

Did he smite them for all this, or did he 
spare them? He spared them. Did he punish 
them, or did he pity them? He pitied them. 
Was his heart full of fury, or was it full of for- 
giveness? Full of forgiveness. Did he hate 
them when they did it (they deserved to be 
hated by him, but did he hate them?), or did 
he love them ? He loved them. 

I wonder he did not strike them dead. I 
wonder he did not strike Judas dead when he 
kissed him. I wonder he has not struck many 
a man in the world dead for his sins. I wonder 
he has not struck you dead for your sins. I 
wonder he has not struck me dead for sins I 



Word of God. 99 

have done. The only way we can account for 
his not having done so is that he is Jesus. 
And the only way we can explain it is, as the 
Bible says, hy remembering that "His ways 
are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our 
thoughts, for as high as the heavens are above 
the earth, so are his ways higher than our 
ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts." 
And as another precious verse in the blessed 
book declared, " He is long-suffering to usward, 
not willing that any should perish, but that all 
should come to repentance." 

JESUS 

Before Nations. 

As Jesus was before the council, so he has 
been before nations. One nation passed laws 
to blot out everything that could remind them 
of Jesus, or remind them of God, and the con- 
sequence was that unutterable horrors and all 
manner of bloodshed came upon them as a 
nation. That was France in the eighteenth 
century. The Jews, as a nation, rejected Jesus. 
" He came unto his own, and his own received 
him not." And so they are punished by being 
scattered over the earth. And to-day some 
nations reject him, as, for instance, Spain and 
Mexico, while others receive him, as, for ex- 
ample, Japan, which is almost at last, nomi- 
nally, a Christian land. 



100 Talks feom the 

JESUS 
Before YOU. 

But what is of more interest to you is that 
Jesus is before you. How are you treating 
Jesus? It is said that one of the popes of 
Eome— Hildebrand — was so powerful that he 
had great kings to stand in awe of him. One 
of them in some way incurred his displeasure, 
and was forthwith ordered by Hildebrand to 
appear before him. And the king, powerful 
though he was, for he was the king of Ger- 
many, obeyed. But the pope gave orders to 
his servants to lock the doors of his palace and 
bolt and bar the gates when the king came, so 
he could not get in, and not to let him in until 
he should give the word. And all night long 
was the king kept waiting outside in the cold 
and snow. But here is one who is greater far 
than any earthly king, whom you have kept 
waiting outside all your life long. And you 
have locked the door of your heart against him, 
and drawn across it all the bolts and bars you 
can to keep him out, for is not that the way 
you are treating Jesus? 

Do you know what it is to be ignored? I 
remember once when I was a boy offending 
my good father in some way, I forget now just 
how it was. But how do you suppose he pun- 
ished me? Why, for a whole day he just 



"Word of God. 101 

ignored me. It was just as if he did not know 
I was about at all. If I came into the room 
where he was he would not see me. He would 
look past me, look around me, look over me, 
but never at me, and, oh! how it pained me. 
But is not that very like the way you treat the 
blessed Son of God ? Tou look over him, and 
look around him, and look past him, and turn 
from him, look at pleasure, look at friends, 
look at having a good time, look at every- 
thing else but Jesus. And must it not pain 
Jesus, bethink you? Suppose the good Sa- 
maritan had gone to the house of the man 
whom he had helped by binding up his wounds 
after the robbers had beaten him and left him 
half dead by the wayside, and that man, though 
he knew it was the good Samaritan, had 
slammed the door in his face, or, at least, had 
pretended not to know him and would not see 
him, would that not have been to the last de- 
gree most abominably ungrateful? Why, yes, 
you say! And yet here is one who has done 
infinitely more for you than ever any good 
Samaritan could do, and how do you treat him? 
You remember that verse that says, "For we 
must all appear," or stand, "before the judg- 
ment seat of Christ." Jesus was before the 
council, but the day is to be when the council 
will have to be before Jesus. And what will 



102 Talks from the Word of God. 

the wicked high priest say then? And what 
will those who buffeted him say? And that 
wretch that spit upon him, what will he say? 
And what will you say ? 

Will you not resolve that you will be as 
bold for him as they were bitter, and that you 
will be as consecrated as they were cruel, and 
as earnest as they were evil, and with the help 
of his Holy Spirit, speak as many loving words 
for him as they spoke lying words against him? 



3esus (Eructfteb- 

Maek xv. 21-39. 

o 
u 

R 

JESUS 

A 
V 

O 
U 
R 

THEKE is no more solemn story in the 
word than that about the death of Jesus. 
When Moses saw the burning bush, that burned 
and yet was never consumed, he was told to 
take his shoes from off his feet, for the place 
whereon he was standing was holy ground. 
On how much holier ground do you and I 
stand, when we are in the presence of the cross 
of Christ. Do you know the meaning of the 
cross for yourself? It is well to know all you 
can in the way of human knowledge. You 
should learn all you can of history, learn all 
you can of geography, learn all you can of 
figures and of mathematics, learn everything 
you possibly can of this beautiful world that 
103 



104 Talks from the 

God lias placed you in. But though you 
should have all knowledge, and be able to 
speak with the tongues of angels and of men, 
and yet not know the meaning of the cross, all 
your learning will amount to nothing, and you 
will be worse than if you were altogether igno- 
rant, for you will be altogether lost. 

The angel said to Mary, " Thou shalt call his 
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from 
their sins." There can be no such thing as 
saving unless there is some sort of danger to 
save one from. If you were walking quietly 
along the street, and some one were to clutch 
you hastily by the arm and say that he was 
saving you, there would not be any special 
meaning in that, since you would not be in any 
special clanger. But if you were out in mid- 
ocean and your ship was sinking, and all on 
board had taken to the boats, and there was 
only one place left in the last of these small 
boats, whilst there were two, you and some one 
else, still left on the ship, and that one was to 
say to you, "You go in the boat, and I'll stay 
and go down with the ship," and did so, why, 
he would be your saviour indeed, and that would, 
indeed, be saving you, for he would die for you 
and go down for you, in order that you might 
escape and live. How like Jesus that would 
be ! He died for us, went down for us, that 



Woed of God. 105 

you and I might escape and live. You were in 
danger of perishing on account of your sins, and 
sinking to the lowest depths of hell. 

' ' Jesus sought you when a stranger, 
Wandering from the fold of God, 
He, to rescue you from danger. 
Interposed his precious blood." 

We are saved by his blood. You remember 
what the Bible says about the plagues that were 
sent upon King Pharaoh because he would not 
let the people of Israel go. And the last plague 
was the killing of the first-born, from the king 
on his throne down to the prisoner in the dun- 
geon. But how were God's own people saved? 
Why, they were told, you remember, to kill a 
lamb, and take the blood of the slain lamb and 
sprinkle it on the lintel and on the side posts 
of the doors to their houses, and then that 
night to keep indoors under the power of the 
blood to shelter them and protect them ; and 
when, on that fearful night to Egypt, the de- 
stroying angel, at midnight, flew over the land, 
wherever he saw the sprinkled blood he passed 
over that house, and every one inside of it was 
safe. 

But suppose there had been one of the influ- 
ential men of Israel out on the streets that 
night, and he was a first-born son, and he had 
said, " Well, I don't see why the blood should 
14 



106 Talks from the 

save me. I am a man of influence, I am. I 
won't trouble myself about going indoors," and 
he had stayed outside. Would his influence 
haye sayed him? No! Suppose he had been 
a learned man, would not his learning haye 
saved him? No! Bat if he had been a rich 
man would not his riches haye sayed him ? No ! 
But, now, suppose he had been a good man, that 
would haye sayed him, would it not? No! 
He had to be under the blood, trusting in the 
power of the blood, or else he could not be 
safe. Out on the streets the destroying angel 
would haye certainly slain him, and he could 
only be safe by being in the house over the 
door of which was the sprinkled blood. Why? 
Just because God was pleased to have it so, 
that is all. He has said to us in his holy word 
that Jesus is the Lamb of God who taketh 
away the sin of the world. "Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." 
" There is none other name under heaven given 
among men whereby we must be saved." Now, 
if you had not sinned, of course you would not 
need this Saviour ; but then, as actual and 
fearful fact, you know you have sinned, and 
grievously sinned, against the most high and 
holy God, your heavenly Father. 

Do you know the meaning of sin, that is, of 
the word "sin"? 



Word of God. 107 

They say it was a custom with the old Anglo- 
Saxons at a certain time in the year to go out 
with their bows and arrows and shoot at a ring. 
Every arrow had to be put inside the ring. 
When a man missed the ring, he " sinned, " that 
is, " he missed the mark." When he got only 
one arrow inside the ring and six outside, he 
was a very bad "sinner," "one who missed the 
mark," and although he had got one in, he was 
a sinner as much as if he had missed altogether, 
for he had to get all in. If he got six arrows 
in and six out, he was not quite so bad a sinner, 
but still he was a sinner. If he got eleven 
arrows in and only one went outside, still he 
was a sinner. He had to get all the arrows in, 
or else he was a sinner. Now, God's mark for 
you and me is, that we must be perfect. In so 
far as we fail of being perfect, we miss the 
mark — we sin. Have you not missed the 
mark ? Have you not ever been angry ? Have 
you never lied nor stolen? Have you never 
been disobedient to parents ? Have you not 
had thoughts that were nothing more or less 
than hellish thoughts? Perhaps it would not 
matter much to you to have your pockets 
turned inside out before a number of people, 
but if such a thing were possible as that your 
heart could be turned inside out, why, you 
would not have that happen for the world, you 



108 Talks from the 

have sinned so. And that is true of every one. 
As the Bible says, we " all have binned and 
come short of the glory of God." You may 
not think you are so very bad, but even if you 
have been ever so good, the word says, "For 
whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet 
offend in one point, is guilty of all." (Jas. ii. 10.) 
And now what about those who have sinned? 
Read Ezekiel, eighteenth chapter and fourth 
verse, and you will find it says, " The soul that 
sinneth, it shall die " ; only link that with another 
verse, will you, which says, " But God com- 
mendeth his love to us, in that while we were 
yet sinners Christ died for us " (Rom v. 8), and 
you have the glorious gospel. Jesus has suf- 
fered in our place, and has died our death, and 
borne our sins in his own body on the tree. 
Glory be to his holy name ! 

Napoleon Bonaparte sent his officers out to 
draft new men into his army. One man that 
was taken, being quite wealthy, paid a friend of 
his to go in his stead. This friend of his, in a 
battle fought not long after, was killed. When 
a few months had rolled by, it became neces- 
sary to make another draft, and, singular to say, 
this same rich man was drawn again. But he 
said to the officers, "You can't take me, I'm 
dead." "Dead!" they exclaimed. "You are 
crazy, man. What do you mean by telling us 



* Wokd or God. 109 

you are dead?" "Oh! yes, indeed," he re- 
plied. "I died upon such a battle-field. I 
paid that man to go for me, and he was- my 
substitute, and he was killed, and you have no 
claim, therefore, whatever upon me." They 
carried the case up to Napoleon himself, and 
the emperor decided in his favor. " The man 
is right," he said ; " his friend died for him." 

And so, when the broken law of God, or our 
conscience, or Satan, or whoever or whatever 
else comes down upon us to affright us, no 
matter how much we have "missed the mark," 
have sinned, "we can our fierce accuser face, 
and tell him Christ has died." Jesus' blood 
blots out our sins, it brings us nigh to God. 
" He has made peace for us by the blood of his 
cross." His blood will give us boldness in the 
day of judgment, and it is of that that we will 
sing in heaven. Alleluia unto him who hath 
redeemed us with his blood. 

Oh ! what a world of love we owe to Jesus ! 
What a life of love we should all lay down at 
Jesus' feet! How Ave should serve him who 
has saved us, and do for him who died for 
us! 

When the children of Israel were bitten by 
the fiery serpents, Moses was told to put the 
brazen serpent upon a pole and lift it up, and 
every one who was bitten, who looked to it, 



110 Talks from the Word of God. 

lived. And e> r en so, we are taught, was Jesus 
lifted up, that "whosoever believeth on him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

Let us, then, not look at ourselves, or look 
at our sins, or look at our wounds, or look at 
our friends, but look to Jesus, and know for 
ourselves how true it is that "there is life for a 
look at the crucified one." 



1 Kings xii. 1-17. 

f Kingdom, 

Division or Unity ? School, 

In the Heart, 

I Life. 

THE first king over all Israel was Saul. 
The second was David. The third was 
Solomon. And the fourth was Rehoboarn. 
But the last king did not remain king over all. 
In his reign the kingdom was divided. 

Various reasons are given as to what led up 
to the division of the tribes into two kingdoms, 
but, perhaps, the chief cause after all was the 
disaffection of the people during the latter 
years of the reign of King Solomon. Solomon, 
in his last years, was very anxious to pose as 
a great king, to make a great show of magnifi- 
cence, to be on an equal footing with all the 
kings around him, and, if possible, to excel 
them in magnificence. Of course this would 
cost a great deal, and to raise the money to 
defray this cost he taxed the people heavily, 
and kept taxing them, and taxed them again 
and again. The people complained, and, doubt- 
Ill 



112 Talks from the 

less, protested over and over, and at last broke 
out into open rebellion. Three separate times 
was there rebellion, but each time Solomon re- 
pressed it. The third time, the leader of the 
rebellion was a young man by the name of 
Jeroboam, whom Solomon had highly favored, 
and promoted from post to post. But Solomon 
was too powerful for Jeroboam, who was com- 
pelled to flee for his life down into Egypt. 

When Solomon died, the people's oppor- 
tunity came. They asked his son, the new 
king, Rehoboam, to meet them at Shechem, 
which he did, and there they plainly told him 
what they wanted, and that was, that he should 
make the heavy burdens which his father had 
put upon them lighter, and they would gladly 
then serve him and own him as their king. 

Here, now, was King Rehoboam's opportu- 
nity. What will he do with it? The question 
that was brought before his mind was simply 
this, Shall there be a division of the kingdom, 
or unity, which? Rehoboam asked for three 
days, to think over it, and told the people 
at the end of that time to come again to 
him. He then consulted with the old men who 
had been the state counsellors in King Solo- 
mon's time, and wisely asked them what they 
would advise him to do. They say to him, in 
so many words: "Speak kindly to the people 



Word of God. 113 

and they will be your servants forever." What 
a pity Eehoboarn did not follow the old people's 
advice. Very foolishly he consulted with the 
young men next, young men whom he had 
grown up with, and who had, doubtless, been 
his boyhood playmates. Hot-headed, impul- 
sive, reckless, sinful, they say to him : " Tell 
the people that your little finger shall be thicker 
than your father's loins, and that, whereas he 
whipped them with whips, you will whip them 
with scorpions." And so, at the end of the three 
days, when the people came to him, that was 
just what he said to them, " I will add to your 
burdens instead of making them lighter; my 
little finger shall be thicker than my father's 
loins ; he whipped you with whips, but I will 
whip you with scorpions." He had the oppor- 
tunity to weld the kingdom again into one, but 
he flung away the grand chance of his life, and 
instead of rendering a decision in favor of unity 
he decided in favor of division. For as soon 
as the people heard him speak in that tone, 
they at once raised a mighty cry that shook 
his throne and rent it, as the terrible earth- 
quake rends the tottering earth : To your tents, 
O Israel ; what have we to do with David ? now 
see to thine own house, O David. 

People are always apt to treat you in about 
the same way you treat them. Fling kisses to 
15 



114 Talks from the 

the world and the world will throw kisses back. 
Scowl at the world and the world will scowl at 
yon. Frown at the world and the world will 
frown at you. But smile on the world and the 
world will smile back again. Treat people 
kindly and people will treat you kindly. Say 
the best things you can about people and 
people will say the best things they can about 
you. Love the whole round world and the 
whole round world will love you. Let Reho- 
boam be a servant to the people and the people 
will be King Eehoboam's servants forever. But 
let Pvehoboam fling away the people and the 
people will fling away Rehoboam. 

How about you and me? Does not this 
same question, division or unity, apply to you 
and me as members of the same school ? Shall 
we be thinking hardly of each other, saying 
evil things of each other behind each others' 
backs, or shall we be united, loving each other 
and doing all we can to help each other, lend 
each other a hand to lift up, and in every way 
we can be a blessing the one to the other? 
Shall some of us be indifferent, and some of us 
dead in earnest, or shall we all see to it that 
we have unity in prayer, unity in song, unity in 
purpose, and holy endeavor of heart to lead 
devoted lives for Jesus ? 

How shall it be in your own heart, to bring 



Word of God. 115 

the question still closer home ? Shall there be 
division in your heart and life, or shall there 
be unity? When you look back over your 
past life, can you not see how only a very little 
piece of your heart was given to God, and how 
a very great deal was given to the world — your 
heart divided? Well, should it be always so, 
shall it be always so ? David saj T s in one place 
in the Psalms, "Unite my heart to fear thy 
name," and that is surely one of the very best 
prayers that you and I can make. Let us ask 
him to come into our hearts, and come into 
our lives, and cast out all pride and all conceit 
and all divisions, and make us one with him. 
And no matter how divided our lives may have 
been in the past, let us remember that we 
should "forget the things that are past, and 
press forward to the things that are before." 
God forgets and forgives our past broken-up 
lives for Jesus' sake, and if he forgets, why, we 
can afford to forget, too; blessed be his holy 
name. And now from henceforth on may we 
live with oneness of soul and aim for Jesus 
only. 



36olatry in 3sraeL 

1 Kings xii. 25-33. 

r Lived a bad life. 

I E R O B O A M ] Led ° thers astra y- 

J ( Left a bad name. 

AFTEK the ten tribes of Israel forsook 
Rehoboam, they made Jeroboam their 
king. But Jeroboam, so far from being any 
better, was, if anything, a worse man even than 
Rehoboam was, that is, in his personal charac- 
ter. He lived a bad life ; he led others astray. 
Did you never lead anybody else astray ? It 
is a very fearful thing to do badly and to sin 
ourselves, but is it not a very much worse thing 
to try to make somebody else sin, and to de- 
liberately lead another soul astray? Some- 
times you may do this when you mean to do it, 
and sometimes you may do it when you do not 
mean it. For instance : Here at home some- 
times your father or mother may say to you, 
" My son, I want you to do so and so for me," 
and have you never at any time in your life 
hastily and crossly and very unnaturally an- 
swered, "I won't"? A little baby brother was 
there, perhaps, who overheard you, a little 
brother just old enough, about, to talk a little 
116 



Talks fkom the Wokd of God. 117 

and run around, and he takes notice of the way 
in which you answer, and not long afterwards 
when father or mother asks him to do some- 
thing, he answers up sharply in his little thin, 
piping voice, " I won't," imitating you in voice 
and manner perfectly. Have you not now just 
so far led him astray? Or maybe you pick 
up a stone to fling at a bird or cat or dog, and 
instantly when he sees you the impulse to 
cruelty springs up in his own heart, and he 
flings at them, too. Is he not led astray again? 
You say these are small things. So they are. 
But an acorn is a small thing, also, and yet 
from the little acorn grows a mighty tree, that 
strikes its roots deep into the earth and spreads 
its branches far and wide, defying the storms 
that beat upon it. And so, from some little 
thing may grow a big sin, and from some little 
act may spring a bad habit that will harm and 
ruin a soul. Oh! be careful, then, not to lead 
others astray. 

How was it that Jeroboam led others astray? 
Well, he made golden calves for the people to 
worship, and told them that these calves were 
the gods who had brought them up out of 
Egypt, and so he won the people over to 
idolatry. Mind you, God had promised Jero- 
boam that if he just did what was right, and 
kept his commandments, he would look after 



118 Talks from the 

him and surely establish his throne. But Jero- 
boam thought that the people going up to Jeru- 
salem every year to the great feasts would have 
their hearts turned to Rehoboam again, and so 
would leave him utterly, and Rehoboam then 
would take his life, and in order to prevent 
that, he said to the people, "It is too much 
for you to go up to Jerusalem; here are the 
golden calves at home, at your very doors; 
now worship them." He tried in this way to 
save himself. But Jesus says, "If any man 
will save his life, he shall lose it; but whoso- 
ever will lose his life for my sake and the 
gospel's, the same shall find it." 

Moreover, Jeroboam broke the command- 
ment. Indeed, he violated two of the com- 
mandments, the first, which is, "Thou shalt 
have no other gods before me," and the second 
commandment, which says this : " Thou shalt 
not make unto thee any graven image, or any 
likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or 
that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the 
waters under the earth. Thou shalt not bow 
down thyself to them nor serve them : for I the 
Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the 
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto 
the third and fourth generations of them that 
hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands 
of them that love me, and keep my command- 



Word of God. 119 

merits." Jeroboam used his influence as a 
king, probably, to induce the people to bow 
down to these idols. What a hellish thing to 
use our influence over others to make them do 
wrong! Every one has an influence, and you 
have an influence. How do you use that in- 
fluence? Have you never noticed how one 
boy can say to another, " Oh, come along," and 
immediately he will " come along," and to some 
place, maybe, where he knows he ought not to ? 
And how, again, he will say to him, "Oh, that's 
all right ; nobody will ever know." And yet 
somebody will surely know, for God will know. 
Have you never noticed how, in a hundred 
ways, one soul will exert an influence for bad 
over another? Do you never yourself use 
your own influence for evil instead of for good ? 
And how is it with you when others try to use 
their influence over you? What do you do, 
and what is it that you ought to do, then ? 
This, and this only : Stand true for God and 
the right, though all the skies come falling 
down upon you. A little office boy in a large 
exporting house was fearfully tested once. A 
certain vessel had come consigned to the house 
with a cargo of coal. The captain was anxious 
to unload with all haste, so that he might fill up 
his vessel with cotton and return home. But 
through some oversight in the fearful press of 



120 Talks from the 

business at the time, the firm neglected to send 
down any word to him as to where he must 
discharge his coal. Several days passed, and 
finally he became so angry that he sued the 
house for demurrage — that is, to make them 
pay for his loss of time. The head of the firm 
then sent for the little boy, and said to him, 
"You remember that I sent you down to Cap- 
tain D. with a message to him where to dis- 
charge his coal ? " " No, sir, you did not." 
" Oh, yes, I did. You have just forgotten about 
it, that's all." And nothing more was said 
about it, although the poor boy was very much 
worried, being well aware that he had never re- 
ceived any such message at all. On the morn- 
ing of the trial he was sent for again, before 
they all went up to the court-house. " Now," 
said the head of the firm to him, " you remem- 
ber that I sent you to tell Captain D. just what 
wharf he was to discharge his cargo of coal at?" 
" No, sir, you did not," earnestly replied the boy, 
"I am sure you did not, sir." "Yes, I did," 
was the only answer, "but you have forgotten." 
They were then all summoned to make haste, 
as the trial was about to begin. In the court- 
house, while the trial was going on, the same 
man leaned over and whispered to the little 
boy, "Now, you see, boy, I sent that message 
to Captain D. by you, and when they call on 



Word of God. 121 

you that's just what you have got to say, and, 
mind you, say it clearly, too." " No, you did not, 
sir," was the tearful response of the poor terri- 
fied but truthful boy, and in a few minutes he 
was put upon the witness-stand. A lawyer 
looked at him very solemnly for a moment and 
then said, in a kind tone, " Now, my little 
man, Mr. so and so " (naming the head of the 
firm) " sent you on such a day, did he not, with 
a message to Captain D., about his coal ? " " No, 
sir," replied the boy. ''What ! did you not take 
that message to Captain D., then?" "No, 
sir." "Well, maybe you took it on the day 
after that ? " " No, sir," answered the boy. 
" What ! did you not take any such message at 
all?" "No, sir; none at all." The lawyer 
seemed to be completely surprised, and then 
disgusted, for he turned to the judge and said : 
" May it please your honor, I was assured that 
this boy would testify that this particular mes- 
sage had been delivered by him, but I find that 
I have been deceived; and so I beg leave to 
relinquish this miserable case at once." And 
it was at once decided in favor of the captain 
and against the firm. 

The boy thought that he would surely be 

discharged. In fact, he was in the midst of 

writing a letter to his poor widowed mother 

telling her all about it, and how he felt that he 

16 



122 Talks from the 

was compelled to tell the truth, no matter what 
happened, when again he was sent for to come 
into the private office of the head man. That 
gentleman told him that he had thought the 
matter over, and that he felt ashamed that he 
had tried to make him tell a falsehood, and that 
he had no idea of discharging him, but would 
keep him and give him a large increase of pay. 
He had the profoundest admiration for a boy 
who could so manfully stick to the truth. 

When anybody tries to make you do wrong, do 
not do it. When anybody tempts you to speak 
a vile word, do not speak it. When anybody 
tempts you to learn a vile tale, do not learn it. 
When anybody tempts you to look at a vile 
picture, do not look at it. When any one tempts 
you to do anything at all that is vile, do not do 
it. In the first chapter of Proverbs, tenth 
verse, we read these words, " My son, if sinners 
entice thee, consent thou not." 

Jeroboam left a bad name. The Bible says, 
"The name of the wicked shall rot," and thir- 
teen times afterwards he is mentioned in the 
Bible as "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which 
made Israel to sin." How much better it would 
have been if he had set a good example instead 
of a bad example. 

Can you and I very well set a good example 
unless we have the Lord Jesus to help us? 



Word of God. 123 

Impossible. At school, when we were learning 
how to write, what beautiful writing there used 
to be at the top of the page in our copy-books. 
The first line after it we would write pretty 
well. But the second line would not be so 
good as the first, and the third would be worse 
than both, until by the time we reached the 
bottom of the page our writing would be a 
perfect scrawl, whereas it ought to have been 
the best of all. Why was that ? Why, simply 
because we were copying after our own copy 
instead of looking up to the top of the page 
every time we started a fresh line. And so, it 
will not do for us to copy somebody who is 
copying Jesus, but we must copy Jesus. We 
must not imitate an imitation, but imitate Jesus. 
We must not follow some one who is following, 
but ourselves follow Jesus, and take him for our 
example, and for our own perfect pattern ; and 
just in proportion as Ave do this we will be able 
to set a good example to others, and not lead a 
bad life but a good life, not leave a bad name 
but a blessed name, and instead of leading 
others astray lead them, with the help and by 
the good power of our Lord Jesus upon us and 
them, into that strait and narrow way that 
will bring them at last unto the heavenly king- 
dom above. 



(Bob's dare of €ltjafy. 

1 Kings xvii. 1-16. 

God cares for 
YOU, 

Your body, 
our soul, 
OURSELF. 

THE story of how God cared for Elijah by 
sending the ravens to feed him by the 
brook Cherith reminds ns that God cares for all 
his creatures. He cares for the flowers of the 
field. He knows just how much sunshine and 
just how much rain to send in order to paint the 
color in the cheek of the little pansy. He cares 
for the birds. He tells them where to go to 
hide from the cold in winter time; he tells 
them how to build their nests, and where to 
find their food, and teaches them how to sing. 
He cares for all the trees of the forest and 
covers them with all their foliage, and gives 
them their strength and beauty. He cares, 
too, for the stars, and guides them, and tells 
th«m what paths to take so they will not go 
crashing into one another. And he also cares 
for a]l the people who live upon the whole face 
124 



Talks from the "Word of God. 125 

of the earth. He gives the nations of the earth 
their bread and their water, and is continually 
supplying the whole world according to all of 
its needs. 

And does he not care for you, too, think 
you? Has he ever, in all the past, left you 
alone? Have you ever wanted for food? 
Have you ever lacked for raiment? Has not 
he always put a roof over your heads? "Oh! 
that men would praise the Lord for his good- 
ness, and for his wonderful works to the child- 
ren of men." 

God not only cares for your body ; he cares, 
too, for your soul, as well. There is a story 
told of how a poor fisherman in far-off India 
found once a magnificent pearl. He did not 
know the value of it, and gave it to an Arab 
for a gold coin which kept him, it is true, in 
plenty for an entire year. But the Arab did 
not perceive, either, the rare value of the gem, 
and he traded it to a Russian in exchange for 
some powder and shot. The Russian, too, was 
like the others, and parted with it before a very 
great while to another Russian, who happened 
to be a merchant prince. This merchant was 
quite a connoisseur in gems, and saw at once 
that he had come into the possession of a very 
precious gem indeed. He spoke of it to his 
friends, showed it to them, and the fame of the 



126 Talks from the 

pearl soon spread far and wide. Visitors came 
from long distances to see it. "He received 
thern in his merchant's costume in a palace 
plain without, but resplendent within with all 
that human art could do to embellish a dwell- 
ing, and led them silently through room after 
room filled with rare collections, and dazzling 
by the splendor of their ornament." At last 
he would bring them before two magnificently 
carved folding doors, which he opened with a 
key he always carried about with him. They 
entered, then, into a room, not very large, 
whose floor was laid w T ith malachite and costly 
marble. The ceiling was of carved, rare woods, 
and the walls hung with silk tapestry. No 
furniture at all adorned the room excepting a 
round table of dark Egyptian marble in the 
centre. On this was a curious-looking box of 
wonderful contrivance, so constructed that no 
one could open it but the merchant himself, 
wdio alone knew the secret of it. But when it 
was opened he would take out from it a beauti- 
ful casket, and draw from somewhere on his 
person where lie kept it secreted, a tiny golden 
key with which he opened it, and would then 
hold forth the pearl. And it was a rare sight 
for those who were lovers of such things. It 
was about the size of a small egg, of exquisite 
beauty and unsurpassed lustre. Perfect in 



Word of God. 127 

form as lie held it up to the light, and would 
then let it roll reluctantly from out of the palm 
of his hand over his long, delicate fingers on to 
the table, the play of colors about it was so en- 
trancing that the visitors would catch the spirit 
of enthusiasm oyer it that the grim old mer- 
chant had, and go away and talk about it to 
every one they met. At last the Emperor of 
Russia heard of it and offered to buy it. But 
the old merchant would not part with it. The 
emperor offered him lands and titles and honors 
in vain. A few years afterward there was a 
conspiracy against the emperor, and the mer- 
chant prince was suspected of being in some 
way implicated in it. He had to flee for his 
life, and went to Paris, where he took his pearl 
with him, the fame of which had already pre- 
ceded him thither. Some of the wealthiest of 
the gay French capital gathered together to see 
his famous gem. He took out the tiny golden 
key and opened the casket, but as he did so he 
turned deadly pale. His eyes looked as if they 
would start out of their sockets. His whole 
frame trembled, and the casket fell from his 
palsied hands. The pearl was discolored, it 
had turned to a sickly blue. And from being a 
millionaire, the former wealthy merchant prince 
was now nothing whatever in the world but a 
pauper. In a short time it turned to a white 



128 Talks from the 

powder, and was utterly worthless and lost to 
him forever. Is not that pearl like your soul, 
discolored by sin ? Your soul is saturated 
through and through with sin. It is heavily 
stained by sin, and not with any sickly blue 
color, but it is a most woeful black. How 
marked and scarred your soul is by sin. That 
merchant could not do anything to wash out the 
discoloring and restore his gem to its former 
beauty, and so the Bible says, "though thou 
take thee nitre and much soap, yet is thine 
iniquity marked before me, saith the Lord." 
But there is a way for it to be cleansed, blessed 
be God! There is a fountain opened up for 
sin and for uncleanness. 

"There is a fountain filled with blood, 
Drawn from Iinmanuel's veins, 
And sinners plunged beneath that flood, 
Lose all their guilty stains." 

A little girl once dreamed that she had died 
and gone up to the sky. And there she saw 
the very biggest book that ever was. At the 
head of one of the pages of it she saw her 
name written, and all down the page in ugly 
black letters all the sins she had ever done, 
big and little, inside and outside. And she 
was very much frightened, for she noticed high 
up in the sky, right over her, a great big eye, 
which seemed to be looking down right near 



Wobd of God. 129 

that very page. But while she was frightened, 
she noticed a kind, good, loving man come 
along, whose hand was hurt in the middle and 
blood was flowing from it. And he passed his 
hand over the page, from the top of it to the 
very bottom, and the blood covered over every 
ugly line, and nothing was left on the page ex- 
cept her name at the top. But now such a 
strange thing happened. For in her dream she 
saw that the red blood of the page began to turn 
white and whiter and whiter, until it was as 
white as the driven snow. And she heard a 
voice from where the great eye was call out 
her name in the very sweetest tones she ever 
heard — -then she awoke. 

She told the dream to her mother, who im- 
mediately taught her a part of a verse in the 
first chapter of the First Epistle of St. John, 
" And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleans- 
eth us from all sin." And that is the only 
thing that will, "for there is none other name 
under heaven given among men, whereby we 
must be saved." That will wash out all the 
woeful black of sin and make it spotless white. 
That will take away all the discoloring, all the 
marks, and all the sc^rs ; and now, will you not 
believe it? God loves you; God loves your 
body; God loves your soul; God loves you 
yourself. God so loved you " that he sent his 
17 



130 Talks from the Word of God. 

only begotten Son into the world, that whoso- 
ever" (that means you) " believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life." Believe it 
for yourself. 

How was Elijah fed? Because he trusted 
that he would be, "according to the word of 
the Lord." And how was the widow woman 
sustained ? Because she, too, trusted, " accord- 
ing to the word of the Lord." And how are 
you to be saved? Just in the same way, by 
trusting, "according to the word of the Lord." 
He says, "According to your faith be it unto 
thee." " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
thou shalt be saved." "The blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin," and 
"though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be 
as white as snow; though they be red like 
crimson, they shall be as wool." Glory be to 
God on high ! Amen and Amen ! 



(Elijafy anb tt?e prophets of 23aaL 

1 Kings xviii. 25-39. 

f Confronts ] Crowds of 

I Challenges | 4SO 

j Combats 550 short 

L Conquers J 

Chases 1,000 

THE story of Elijah and the four hundred 
and fifty prophets of Baal is one of the 
most thrilling in all of the Bible, and just as in 
that case there was a right side and a wrong 
side, is it not so in most cases, that there 
is a right side and a wrong side, and you are 
either on the one side or on the other? You 
are on the wrong side or on the right side now. 
"Which side are you on? There is sin on the 
one side and salvation on the other. On the 
one side is holiness and heaven, and on the 
other side, hell. On the one side, Satan ; on the 
other side, God. Whose side are you on ? Are 
you on God's side ? 

In this particular instance of Elijah there 

was only one man who was on the right side, 

on God's side, and we notice four things about 

him, and the first is, that being on God's side 

131 



132 Talks from the 

he confronts a crowd of four hundred and fifty 
who were on the other side. 

To confront a crowd is to stand up boldly 
with face firmly turned against the crowd ; and 
this is no easy thing to do sometimes. It is 
not easy for a boy at recess time, or after school 
is over, to face a crowd of jeering schoolmates, 
who, without any reason in the world, insist 
that he shall fight some other boy. It by no 
means is any easier, moreover, is it, to confront 
them and refuse to fight when they begin to say, 
" coward," "oh, you are afraid to fight," "you 
cannot beat him anyway," " why do you not 
fight," and all that ? But it is right to confront 
a crowd and refuse to fight when there is no 
real cause. There may be times when it is 
right to fight, as, for instance, when a big, blus- 
tering, overbearing bully insists on tormenting 
and teasing, and drives a boy up into a corner 
and compels him to fight. Then it is right, and 
I always hope that the boy will turn on the 
bully and fight him and win. But to fight just 
to please a lot of cruel-hearted, cowardly boys 
is certainly not right, and yet to confront them 
and tell them that you will not, not that you 
are afraid to, but just because you cannot for 
the life of you see any good reason why you. 
should, is not such a very easy thing to do, 
notwithstanding, is it ? It is not easy for a 



Word of God. 133 

young man to confront a crowd of young men 
who are going into a saloon to drink and who 
urge him to join them ; and when they say to 
him, " oh, be sociable, like the rest of us," it 
does not make it any easier to confront them 
and decline the invitation, does it? And yet, 
it is the right stand to take, and every boy who 
reads these lines should take it every time. 
And it is not easy to confront the crowd and 
refuse them, either, is it, when they say to you, 
" oh, come along, it is all right," when you know 
it is all wrong whither they are going? It is not 
easy at all, sometimes, to refuse to listen or to 
do wrong when somebody says, " oh, everybody 
does so and so. I do not see why you should 
not. You might just as well." And yet, it is 
right, and it is our duty, to stand up for God 
and confront the crowd, no matter how big the 
crowd may be, if it is in the wrong. Do not 
be carried away by mere numbers. There is a 
fascination about a crowd very often, it is true, 
but it by no means follows that the crowd is 
right in every case. Sometimes it happens that 
the crowd is most woefully in the wrong. Read 
Matthew vii. 13: "Enter ye in at the strait 
gate, for wide in the gate and broad is the way 
that leadeth to destruction, and many there be 
which go in thereat." 

There in that verse you see there is a crowd 



134 Talks from the 

(many) that is in the broad road, but the 
crowd is far from being a safe crowd to go 
with, you will notice, as the verse very plainly 
tells us that the road is one that leadeth to de- 
struction. 

And so, when the children of Israel sent the 
twelve spies into the land of Canaan, and ten 
of them reported discouragingly and said in so 
many words that it was no use, that they never 
could hope to overcome the giants that were 
there, but Joshua and Caleb maintained the 
contrary, the crowd all went with the ten, and 
were so sure that they were right and that it 
was even so, that they turned furiously upon 
Joshua and Caleb, and, as the account says 
(Numbers xiv. 10), " all the congregation bade 
stone them with stones." But just at that mo- 
ment the " glory of the Lord appeared in the 
tabernacle" and stopped them. And so you 
may be sure that when you stand for God and 
against a crowd he will come to your aid, too. 
But notice that Elijah not only confronts the 
crowd, but he also challenges them. He does 
not wait for them to set upon him, but he sets 
upon them. He does not wait for them to turn 
against him, but he turns against them. He 
does not wait for them to oppose him, but he 
at once opposes them. He does not wait for 
them to fight him, but he fights them and flings 



Word of God. 135 

down the challenge to them. He says, let them 
build an altar and lay the sacrifice upon it, and 
put no fire under it, but call upon Baal their 
god ; and I will also build an altar and put the 
sacrifice upon it, and have no fire under it, and 
call upon the Lord my God, and the God that 
answereth by fire, let him be the God. And all 
the people cried, " It is well spoken." 

And now Elijah not only confronts and chal- 
lenges, but combats, the wicked priests of Baal. 
They make their altar and lay on it their sacri- 
fice, and commence to call on their sun-god, 
for such they claimed was Baal. And they 
prayed, and prayed, and prayed, and prayed, 
but no answer. At noon, of course, the sun 
was right overhead, and at his highest, and 
then, if at any time, the sun -god ought to have 
shown his power, if he had any. And so 
Elijah mocked them, and said to the priests, 
" Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is talk- 
ing, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or 
peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked." 
And so the priests prayed to Baal harder than 
ever. But do you suppose there was any an- 
swer ? No, none whatever ; and all their efforts 
ended in perfect failure. 

But now came Elijah's turn. He said to all the 
people, " Come near unto me." And they came 
near to him. He took twelve stones and built 



136 Talks from the 

an altar, laid the sacrifice upon it, dug a trench 
about the altar, had them pour water over the 
altar and the sacrifice and everything, till the 
whole was entirely drenched and the trench all 
round about full of the water; and then he 
prayed. It was a short prayer, simple, direct, 
earnest, but in answer to it immediately the 
fire fell and consumed everything: consumed 
the wood, consumed the altar, consumed the 
stones, consumed the very dust, and even licked 
up the water that was in the trench. And so 
Elijah conquers the four hundred and fifty. 
The people all fall prostrate, and cry out aloud, 
"The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is 
the God." 

But was it Elijah, then, who conquered ? Was 
it not, rather, God, who was behind Elijah? 

The fact was, that there was nothing so very 
great anyway in the conquering of the four 
hundred and fifty, for God had promised, " one 
shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thou- 
sand to flight." The priests of Baal were ac- 
tually five hundred and fifty short. You and I 
have no priests of Baal to combat with, but 
there are, none the less, real enemies that each 
of us have to earnestly and faithfully contend 
against. We have evil passions, and sinful 
habits, and wicked desires that we must con- 
front ; and we must challenge them — their right 



Word of God. 137 

to rule over our lives. We must combat them 
courageously every day, and not fail to remem- 
ber that we can be and shall be more than 
conquerors through him who loved us. 

You remember the story of the great general 
who led his army into a narrow defile towards 
the close of a day. He knew that there was a 
stern struggle ahead for his brave and faithful 
soldiers. And he thought, "Now, if they only 
have a good heart to-night, they will fight well 
on the morrow." And so wrapping his mili- 
tary cloak close about him, so as to disguise 
himself, he drew near to one of the camp fires 
in order to ascertain just how they felt. He 
heard one soldier say, "The enemy have an 
immense number of cavalry." "Yes," said a 
second, "and their infantry could not be in any 
better condition, and have, decidedly, the ad- 
vantage over us." "And," replied a third, 
"just see what a lot of artillery they have." 
And then one of the soldiers commenced to 
sum up what was on their side — so much artil- 
lery, so much cavalry, so much infantry, and 
was making rather a poor and discouraging 
showing altogether, when suddenly the general 
threw aside his cloak and stood before them, 
and said, "But, my man, how much do you 
count me for? Am I to count for nothing? Is 
all my past skill as a general to go for naught? 
18 



138 Talks from the Word of God. 

Have I not won battles before? Can I not 
win battles again?" And instantly the men 
were ashamed, and took heart again and 
cheered their commander, and on the day fol- 
lowing fought valiantly, and in a way they had 
never done before, and won the battle, for they 
were under a brave and skilful general. 

Jesus says to you and me, " How much do 
you count me for?" Oh! let us count on him 
and look to him, and though we have not four 
hundred and fifty only, but even a thousand 
fearful sins and wicked passions, we shall over- 
come, for he will help us by his Holy Spirit. 
"And this is the victory that overcometh, even 
your faith." 



(Elijah at f^orelx 

1 Kixgs xix. 

THIS chapter, the nineteenth of First Kings, 
tells how Elijah ran away from Queen 
Jezebel, frightened; "went for his life," the 
exact words are. Why? Doubtless because 
he stopped thinking about God, he stopped 
looking to God, he stopped praying to God, 
and so all his courage went, and all his power 
went, and all his strength completely left him ; 
and he wished that he could die. We will 
not go into all the details of the story, but 
merely look at what it says about the "still 
small voice." 

We are told that Elijah came to a cave, and 
as he stood in the mouth of it there was a 
mighty rushing wind that rent the rocks around 
him, but God was not in the wind; and after 
the wind an earthquake, but God was not in 
the earthquake ; and after the earthquake a 
fire, but God was not in the fire ; and after the 
fire a "still small voice." 

Have you not in your own lifetime often 
heard the same "still small voice"? Many 
call it by the name of conscience, which is de- 
rived from two Latin words, scio, " I know," 
139 



140 Talks from the 

and con, "with," meaning that there is some- 
thing that you "know with" somebody else. 
And who is that somebody else if it is not God ? 
You "know with" God that you ought to be 
living for heaven, you know that you ought to 
be living a very much better life than what yon 
are. God knows "with" you that you ought 
to be his, and you know "with" him that you 
ought to be God's. That is conscience. You 
can afford many things in this life. You can 
afford to be a cripple all your days, going 
about on crutches ; you can afford to be blind, 
and never any more see the glorious sights of 
this wonderful world we live in ; you can afford 
to be deaf, never hearing any of the sweet 
sounds of melody that burst upon the ears of 
others; you can afford to be an invalid all your 
life, and a burden to others ; you can afford to 
be in the direst poverty ; you can afford to be 
without parents, without friends, without any- 
thing, but you cannot afford to turn a deaf ear 
to conscience, nor to slight the whisperings of 
the "still small voice" that speaks within you. 
A boy of twelve or thirteen at a large college 
once went with all of his schoolmates to hear a 
great revivalist. The man spoke fervently, 
plainly, lovingly, earnestly. The boy was con- 
vinced that he was right, and as he listened, 
he said to himself, "That man is surely speak- 



Word of God. 141 

ing the very truth itself, and he is right about 
that, ' I ought to give myself away to the Lord 
Jesus now.'" But he went back to the college 
with the rest of the boys and deliberately sat 
down and thought it over, and coldly deter- 
mined actually that he would not do so vet. 
He would have a lot of fun first. And did he 
have that fun? Yes, he had. But he had 
other things with it besides, as I will tell you. 
There is a terrible fish that is most fearfully 
dreaded by the sailors, called the octopus or 
devil fish. It has a horrible body, almost all 
mouth, save two large, hideous eyes, and at- 
tached to it, a number of tentacles or arms, 
that reach out from it in all directions, and 
with which it wraps around and seizes its vic- 
tims and draws them in to its mouth and so 
devours them. And this boy was seized upon 
by the horrible octopus of sin. This octopus 
reached out one long arm of profanity and 
wrapped that around him, and another arm of 
bad company, and that took hold of him, and 
another arm of procrastination, and that was 
coiled around him, and then the arm of unbe- 
lief that grasped him firmly, and so on, until 
he was almost destroyed by sin. He had 
pleasures, it is true, after a sort, but he had 
also heaviness of heart, and he had sorrows, 
he had unrest of mind, and he had a dis- 



142 Talks from the 

turbed conscience ("there is no peace, saith 
my God, to the wicked"), he had doubts, he 
had darkness, he had no real happiness. And 
every once in a while the thought would come 
to him and strike terror to his soul, " what, if 
I die?" When he wanted to start to do right, 
too, he found he had lost the power, just as 
they say when Eastern fanatics tie up their 
arms for two or three years and refuse to use 
them, afterwards, though they would give any- 
thing if they could do so, they find they have 
lost the power. 

There is nothing like getting a good start in 
a race. Start well, and you stand some chance 
of winning. We are all running a race. The 
prize is heaven. The race-track is our life- 
time. The spectators are the angels, for "we 
are compassed about by a mighty cloud of wit- 
nesses." The starter is the "still small voice" 
that says to you, "My son, give me thy heart." 
Are you listening to that "still small voice," or 
do you smother it? Some smother it with 
business, some with pleasure, some with good 
intentions, some one way, some another. But 
listen to what God says in the first chapter of 
Proverbs: "Because I have called, and no man 
answered; I have stretched out my hands, and 
none regarded. I also will laugh at your 
calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh." 



"Word of God. 143 

Why that word "laugh"? Is it not a most ter- 
rible thought, that of God laughing at you? 

But listen. When that kind friend spoke to 
you in the Master's name, and urged you ten- 
derly and so earnestly to give your heart to 
Christ, what was your answer? Do you re- 
member it? Was it not a little mocking laugh? 
Maybe you thought you were only laughing at 
him, and perhaps he thought something like 
that himself. But, no, you were not laughing 
at him, but you were laughing at God. And 
now God says to you, he also "will laugh at 
your calamity." The "calamity" may be the 
judgment day or it may be the hour of your 
death, but whatever it is, he says, he "will 
laugh" and he "will mock when your fear 
cometh." How can you escape hearing that 
laugh except by obeying the " still small voice "* 
now? Have you not heard yourself speaking 
to yourself in your heart something like this : 
"I am going the wrong way. It will never do. 
My soul will be lost ; I ought to stop ; I ought 
to turn about; I ought to come to God." 
Then do so, and do so now. 

There is a story told of Theodore Parker. 
When quite a little child he was taken by his 
father some distance off from his home to a 
large plantation and then sent back home by 
himself. On his way back he came to a large 



144 Talks from the Word of God. 

pond, and as he was passing it he saw a rho- 
dora in full bloom which attracted him to the 
water's side. There he saw a green turtle 
sunning himself. Now, he had never killed 
anything in all his life, but he had seen other 
boys do so, and he wished to follow their ex- 
ample. He picked up a stick to strike it, when 
all of a sudden he heard a voice within him 
say, " That is wrong." He dropped the stick 
and ran home as fast as he could, and went to 
his mother. "Mother," he said, "what was 
that that said it was wrong?" His mother 
took him up in her lap, wiped a tear from her 
eye, and then said, "My son, some men call it 
conscience, but I prefer to call it the voice of 
God. If you listen to it, it will speak clearer 
and clearer, and always guide you into what is 
right, but if you disobey it, it will fade out 
little by little until you can't hear it at all, and 
it will leave you all in the dark." Theodore 
Parker says that from that moment he tried to 
always obey the "still small voice" whenever it 
spoke to him, and he grew up to be one of the 
most eminent men of his day. 

What are you going to do ? Are you going 
to disobey, or are you going to listen? The 
Bible says, "Obey, and your soul shall live." 
And also, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do 
it." 



Ctfyab's (£ot>etousness + 

1 Kings xxi. 1-16. 

f Covetous, 

A H A R i Crue1, 

ni inu Commits crime. 

[ Condemned. 

KING AHAB had everything one would 
think that heart could desire. He had a 
palace, he had gardens, he had power, he had 
riches, he had a kingdom, he had a crown, he 
had a throne, and yet he was not satisfied. He 
wanted Naboth's vineyard. 

How few there are in this world who are 
fully satisfied! How many there are who are 
all the time coveting something that belongs to 
their neighbors. Here is a boy who says, "I 
wish I had that knife, I wish I had that pony, 
I wish I had that bicycle, I wish I had that 
boy's gold watch and chain," or a girl will say, 
"I wish I had that girl's beautiful present." 

All this is wrong. It is breaking God's com- 
mandment which says, "Thou shalt not covet 
thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his 
maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any- 
thing that is thy neighbor's." 
19 145 



146 Talks from the 

And is it not too, a seeming way of saying 
that you are not satisfied with what God has 
already done for yon? Instead of wishing for 
this, and wishing for that, that you have no 
right to, how much better it would be to stop 
and think, and thank God for what you have. 

Thank God for good vision that can take in 
such a wide sweep of wonderful sights. Thank 
him for the two good eyes that can look upon 
the soul-inspiring pictures he paints in the 
sky after some glorious sunset. Thank him 
for two good ears that can hear the sounds of 
rippling brooks and singing birds, crashing 
thunder, roaring ocean, and musical laughter. 
Thank him for the good pure blood that flows 
in your veins from the crown of your head to 
the tips of your fingers. Thank him for your 
mind, with all its powers of thinking and im- 
agining. Thank him for your exuberance of 
spirits. Thank him for the Bible. Thank him 
for the unspeakable gift of Jesus. Thank him 
that he has made the lines to fall to you in 
pleasant places. And thank him that his banner 
over you to-day is love. 

Do not be covetous like Ahab, but be glad 
that others have so many things which you 
have not, and hope that they may enjoy them 
to the full. 

Even if your covetous desire could be granted 



Word of God. 147 

when you say, "I wish I had all that man's 
money," would it be so certain that it would be 
altogether the very best thing for you? Do 
you not remember the story Jesus told of the 
farmer who built larger barns to hold his 
harvests and then said, " Soul, take thine ease," 
and that night the word that he heard God say 
to him was: "Thou fool, this night thy soul 
shall be required of thee ; then whose shall these 
things be? " " What shall it profit a man, if he 
shall gain the whole world and lose his own 
soul?" "A man's life consisteth not in the 
abundance of things that he possesseth." " Hav- 
ing food and raiment therewith be content." 
"For we brought nothing into this world, and it 
is certain we can carry nothing out." 

Ahab's covetousness led to cruelty and led 
to crime. Of all the sad stories of the Bible 
none is more fearful than this of the murder of 
Naboth. It was so diabolically planned and 
carried out by Jezebel, Ahab consenting. We 
can imagine poor Naboth pleading his inno- 
cence as they accused him of having blas- 
phemed God and the king. We can imagine 
his wife and children begging for his life. But 
no, Jezebel says he must be stoned, and so 
hurrying, hustling, pushing, pressing, the crowd 
took him without the city walls and then stoned 
him with stones till he was dead. 



148 Talks from the 

Abab, then, at the instance of his wicked 
queen, Jezebel, arose and went down to take 
possession of the vineyard. But Elijah was 
there ahead of him, arid suddenly confronts 
him with the fearful question, " Hast thou killed 
and also taken possession?" and then the 
wretched king heard his most awful condem- 
nation — how the dogs would lick up his blood, 
even his, in the very place where they had 
licked up Naboth's, and how Jezebel should be 
wholly devoured by them. 

And every word that the prophet spoke in 
the name of his Lord came literally to pass. 
Why was it that Ahab was so covetous of Na- 
both's vineyard? Was it not simply because 
he thought that if only he could get possession 
of the vineyard of Naboth, why, then he would 
be perfectly happy? 

And why do you covet your little friend's 
knife, or pony, or velocipede, or gold watch, or 
cornelian, or fine clothes, maybe? Is it not for 
the same reason that you think that these 
things would make you, too, perfectly happy? 
But was Ahab happy when he got the vine- 
yard? No! He tuas condemned. And would 
you be happy if you got all that your heart 
coveted ? No ! 

What is the only thing that can fully sat- 
isfy the human heart? It is Christ. Have 



Word of God. 149 

you got him? Do you know him for your 
personal Saviour? Can you say, "My beloved 
is mine, and I am his"? Are you trusting in 
him now ? Will you not let him rule in your 
heart? Just as the rising sun scatters away 
the darkness, so will his blessed presence abid- 
ing in your heart, if you will only open the 
door and let him in, drive out covetousness and 
everything else that is ugly and evil, and there 
will be no danger of cruelty and crime, whilst 
you are positively promised that there will be 
no condemnation, for he has said that "He 
that hath the Son hath everlasting life, and 
shall not come into condemnation, but is passed 
from death unto life." 

"I've found the pearl of greatest price, 
And sing I must for joy ; 
For Christ is mine and I am his, 
Christ shall my song employ." 



CI]c £en (Eommcmbments, 

Exodijs xx. 1-17. 

THESE ten commandments were given upon 
what mountain ? On Mount Sinai. And to 
whom? Moses. And on what were they writ- 
ten? On two tables of stone. Some think 
four were written on one stone and six on the 
other, and some think that five were written on 
one stone and five on the other. But they re- 
mind many persons as they study them of the 
new commandment. 

And now, who was it that gave this new com- 
mandment? Why, it was Jesus. And where 
is it to be found, and what is it ? In the thir- 
teenth chapter of St. John's Gospel, and the 
thirty-fourth verse: "A new commandment I 
give unto you, that ye love one another; as I 
have also loved you, that ye also love one 
another." That is the "new commandment," 
that we 

LOVE 0NE ANOTHER. 

Do all of you, as scholars of this school, or 

any other school, love one another? Do you 

love your teacher, really? Do you love the 

scholar that sits in the class right next to you ? 

150 



Talks fkom the Woed of God. 151 

Do you love the scholar in the next class, also ? 
Do you love the scholar in the class that is 
away down at the other end of the school, and 
does that scholar away down in that class love 
you ? Do you ever pray for each other ? Do 
you pray for your teacher? Do you love your 
superintendent, and do you pray for him, too? 

Doubtless, to very many of these questions 
you can honestly answer, yes! And perhaps 
some can say yes to them all. But supposing 
that you can honestly answer yes to all, is that 
everything that is necessary ? By no means. 
We must widen our horizon. In the church 
our horizon is limited by the four walls of the 
church. If you are outside, though, you have 
a much wider horizon, and can see quite a long 
distance up and down a number of streets. But 
if you are on the seashore, looking out over the 
ocean, you have a wider horizon still. You 
can see so very far off that it looks as if sea 
and sky met together and kissed each other, 
and melted one into the other. 

So must we widen the horizon of our love. 
In Luke vi. 32, 33, Jesus says, "If ye love 
them which love you, what thank have ye ? for 
sinners also love those that love them. And if 
ye do good to them which do good to you, what 
thank have ye? for sinners also do even the 
same." 



152 Talks from the 

All who are scholars together, Sunday after 
Sunday, of the blessed word of God ought to 
love one another anyway. But they ought not 
to stop there, but do as Jesus commands in the 
thirty-ninth verse of the twenty-second chapter 
of Matthew, and love their neighbors as them- 
selves. 

t /^v\/c f O ne another, 
L^\J V C ( yhy neighbor. 

The beautiful parable of the good Samaritan 
(Luke x. 30-37) explains to us who is our neigh- 
bor. Any one who is suffering, any one who 
is in want, any one who is in trouble, any one, 
and not only any one, but every one, whom we 
can help, is our neighbor. Perhaps you know 
of some poor boy or some poor girl who is sick, 
and confined to the house — not only confined 
to the house, but confined to the room, and 
not only confined to the room, but in bed and 
kept there, and unable to leave it. Can you 
not spare an hour of this day to go and read 
to that poor sick one, or do something to 
brighten his or her loneliness and suffering? 
Will you not earnestly try to "love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself"? But that is not enough yet. 
You must widen your horizon still further. 
Jesus says in Matt. v. 44 that we must also 
love our enemies, so that his new command- 



Word of God. 153 

ment and some of his other commands to, us 
are — 

( One another, 

LOVE \ Thy nei s hb ° r ' 

( Your enemies. 

David loved his enemy, King Saul, although 
the king was doing his best to kill him. We 
read in the twenty-fourth chapter of the First 
Book of Samuel, how, at one time, David had 
it in his power to take revenge on his enemy, 
but would not do it. While he and his friends 
were in the back part- of a cave, who should 
enter into the mouth of the cave all alone but 
Saul. David's friends at once said to him that 
the Lord had delivered Saul into his hands, and 
urged David to kill King Saul. But all that 
David did to him was simply to cut off a little 
of the skirt of his robe, so as to let Saul see 
that he could have killed him if he had wanted 
to, but that he forgave him in his heart, and so 
let him go. In another part of the Bible it 
says we must not only love our enemies, but 
show our love, as in Romans xii. 20, 21: "If 
thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give 
him drink : for in so doing that shalt heap coals 
of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, 
but overcome evil with good." Now, how shall 
we do all of these things, and love one another, 
20 



154 Talks from the 

and love our neighbors, and love our enemies 
as we should ? There is only one way at all to 
do it, and it is this : We must put Jesus first, 
and love him most ; and put self last, and love 
self least. 

f JESU5, 
r /^v\/r7 0ne another, 

L vJ V C Thy neighbor, 

[ Your enemies. 

It will be easy for us to love one another 
right, and to love our neighbors as ourselves, 
and to love our enemies also as well, if we will 
earnestly and sincerely, with our whole hearts, 
love Jesus first. When we have his love in 
our hearts first and uppermost, all the rest fol- 
lows easily. 

Sometimes a father will pick up his little boy, 
and taking him into -his lap, ask him the ques- 
tion, " How much does my little son love his 
papa ?" And the little boy will answer, " Oh ! 
a lot ! lots and lots." " But how much, tell 
me?" "Oh! I love you twenty pounds." 
" But that isn't much." " I love you a hun- 
dred pounds." "But neither is that much. Is 
that all?" And then the little child will run 
it up "a thousand pounds, a million pounds, 
a million million, a whole world full," and so 
on. 



Wokd of God. 155 

Jesus tells us just exactly how much we 
ought to love. He shows us how great our 
love ought to be, so that it cannot be any 
greater. Here is what he says, " Greater love 
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his 
life for his friends." (John xv. 13.) 

Two boys were once climbing up into the 
old tower of a church in England. All at once 
a joist gave way. They both slipped and fell. 
The older boy had just time to catch at a beam 
while he was falling, while the younger, slip- 
ping over his body, caught hold of the other 
one's legs. There they hung, poor boys, shout- 
ing in vain for help, for there was no help any- 
where near. Presently the strength of the boy 
who was holding on to the beam began to give 
way, and he told the younger boy that he could 
not hold out much longer. "Do you think you 
could save yourself if I was to let loose? " re- 
plied the brave little lad. "Yes, I believe I 
could," came the answer. Then, immediately, 
" Good-bye, and God bless you," was the quick 
response of the younger, and letting go his 
hold he dropped to the hard stone floor below, 
and was killed in a second of time. The other 
scrambled up and was saved. "Greater love 
hath no man than this, that a man lay down 
his life for his friends." 

That is just how Jesus loved us. He gave 



156 Talks from the Word of God. 

himself for us to save us from perishing, and 
died upon the cross so that you and I and all 
who trust in him might be saved, and he says 
that the same love with which he loved all of 
us, we ought to love one another with. We 
cannot keep the ten commandments. No one 
ever could or did. But we can keep the law 
of love. And love is the fulfilling of the law, 
just like completing a circle that had a little 
bit left out of its circumference. May we all 
have help to 

f JESUS, 

t x^v \ / C 0° e another, 

LVy V C Our neighbors, 

L Our enemies. 








































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